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After working on Shadowplay for quite a while now, I've begun to doubt a couple of my own decisions. One was to release it only when the full game was finished, another was to use 640x480 resolution.

1) The story is pretty clearly split up in 10 days, each of which could potentially be released as a separate episode. This would let me release the first part much quicker, but on the other hand, it does break up the gameflow, and it's always a bit disappointing when the drama builds up to a... "to be continued". It's a great teaser, as Bestowers of Eternity showed. But it might be a bit annoying to do this for 9 episodes (although it seemed to work for the Broken Saints flash movies).

2) It would make everything a lot quicker, if I used 320x200 resolution instead of 640x480. I wouldn't have to fiddle as much with details or bother with perfect character textures. AND the download size would be much smaller. GK1, which I'm trying to emulate, used 320x200 and to this day it looks pretty good (at least to me). Still, it might be a waste to put so much work into a game only to have it look like something from the early nineties. And the resolution DOES somewhat work against my drawing style, because the pencil lines tend to disappear in the pixel blur. But that means all errors would be hidden as well.

I'd like your thoughts on this. I know my own opinion, but it would be nice with some feedback from end-users.

I think the whole HotspotHeight suggestion is weird. Haven't you heard about perspective? What if you try to pick up a tree off in the distance: "I can't get a grip, it's too small"?

Why don't you rather just set custom hotspot properties (IsTooSmall, IsTooBig, IsTooSlippery etc.) for all hotspots you don't want to write proper interactions for, and then check for those when displaying the message?

I know I really should read up on these things...

Yeah, you should

It's perfectly possible to have the background static and add animations as objects, that's what pretty much everyone does. Animating the full background is very limited as you only have five frames to work with, so objects are the way to go. And yes, it looks fine even when scrolling.

GTA Vice City
Hitman 1

Dorcan made a really nice approximation of it (the text isn't displayed beside the characters as in GK, but we're waiting for CJ to implement custom text boxes to do that). You can find it at http://www.digitalmindstudio.ch/script.php?langue=en&id=2&page=

You can download the source code from a link in the sidebar

we can fully understand the original words yet they they think they HAVE to change it...its gay

Actually that strikes me more as a straight thing to do. As we all know, gays are much more intellectual and sophisticated and use fancy foreign words all the time 

But really, the issue about the change is that "Sorceror's Stone" has no meaning. At least I've never heard that used anywhere else. "The Philosopher's Stone" on the other hand is an alchemist term for a legendary object that would, either in itself or as a vital ingredient, turn base metals like lead into gold. I don't really remember how it's related to the plot in the first Potter movie (not that I really care after playing Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban for 10-15 hours a day two months in a row), but nevertheless, a lot of people are familiar with the original term. I've even come across it in several games, like GK3 and Shadow of Memories.

I don't really think it was about Americans not understanding the word "philosopher" but rather the reference contained in the term "philosopher's stone". And well, most Americans probably think philosophy and philosophers sound pretty boring (imagine a movie called "Harry Potter and Heidegger, Kant and Hegel's Stone").

I'm all for a remake of Shadow of the Comet - simply because too few people know the game, and at least I can't get it to run on my computer (the cd version at least). BUT, to be honest, I much prefer the original background (http://www.mobygames.com/game/shots/p,2/gameId,132/gameShotId,414/) to yours. All that texture work totally turns me off.

I'm aware that you probably want a higher resolution than the original, but not only does it seem more realistic to actually finish a remake when using the old backgrounds. But you'll also get a weird blurry effect if you want to keep the original (and fabulous) character portraits and just double their size to fit the higher resolution (as seen in the into screen).

I my opinion, the original game suffered under a somewhat clunky interface, a number of annoying action scenes (mostly in the catacombs), as well as some puzzles than either made no sense or seriously lacked clues to the solution. These issues are what you should spend time on - not on redrawing pretty nice graphics just to get a higher resolution (and a bigger download).

Don't take this is a critique of your project - I'm totally for the initiative to remake one of the most underrated horror games. I just think you should prioritize differently.

Thanks for your input guys. I'll stick with Zoe then. Unless I come up with something better (the name has a symbolic meaning, so it's not interchangeable with just anything).

I'd like your opinion on this. I've just read an E3 preview of Dreamfall (The Longest Journey 2), and I learned that the player character is named Zoe. Well, the thing is, one of the main characters in Shadowplay (though not the player character) is called Zoe as well. I thought it was a cute and sort-of original name for a game character, but well, no longer it seems.

Do you think I should rename my character? Obviously it's not a totally new name like Guybrush or Indiana, but still, won't people associate it with Dreamfall now? And won't that distract from my game?

Well, this might be slightly new. I interviewed Charles Cecil a couple of weeks ago. And this is what he had to say about BASS2:

"I can't really discuss the project at this early stage. However, I can confirm that it will not be a traditional adventure but instead explore innovations in interactive-narrative!"

Hmm, I asked for something - well, not similar, but related - a while back. In my suggestion however, the overlay only affected sprites (primarily characters) and not the background. For example to project complex shadows onto the character sprite.

What's the name of the program you're using? Poser is the only complete character creation/animation package I'm familiar with.

I'm using Poser 5 - for the exact same reason as you - for the characters in my game Shadowplay (you can see some screenshots in the December 2003 issue of The Inventory: http://www.justadventure.com/TheInventory/inv11.zip).

First of all, wrong forum, read the rules.

Second, this is probably the only Sierra series you'd risk getting in trouble with, as it's the only of their old franchises that is still being produced (albeit in a very different shape).

Thirdly, don't assume that it will be any easier to work with existing characters, if you have trouble even writing your own game - think of all the expectations there will be to your game, and how you'll have to emulate Al Lowe's humor.

All in all, good luck!

Exactly, TheDude - in my mind, the Quest for Glory games are among the best adventure games ever, as well as the best computer rpg's ever. I love games where I can explore and interact with a rich environment, and I don't really distinguish genre-wise between Gabriel Knight, the Hitman games, Deus Ex or GTA. I enjoy them all, for all the same reasons.

A game where you go on adventure? Well, that about includes every action game and rpg on the planet. "Adventure" as a fiction-genre does indeed involve wild adventures - Indiana Jones, pirate movies, stuff like that. But the way we use it doesn't really refer to the fictional genre. Actually it just means "games that are like Wil Crowther's text-based dungeon-exploration game 'Adventure'", not that there are many games like THAT around anymore , but it did define the genre, and give it its confusing name. Remember not that many years ago, when every 3D shooter was called a "Doom-clone"? Thank god we didn't end up calling THAT genre "Doom-games".

Hmm, are you using Poser with a cartoon render for the characters? There's something very familiar about that walking style, and the draping of the clothes.

The graphics look wonderful. Reminds me of Broken Sword. I was doing the same thing as you, with the out-of-focus foreground objects, and I had to re-import it again when we got alpha-blending, and I could do them as sprites.

Good luck with your project. Looking forward to hear more of the story.

In my opinion, inventory is not essential, nor are puzzles. As I see it, what defines adventures is also some of their major flaws.

1) Heavily scripted. There's very rarely any kind of AI, randomness, physic engine or emergent gameplay. If the designer hasn't thought of it, it can't happen (unless it's a bug). This means that everything has a purpose: There are no random encounters, or characters that all look the same (excluding the store clerks in Sam & Max ). But it also allows for less freedom.

2) Non-linear navigation of an environment. Rather than running through a thinly disguised corridor, as in most shooters, you usually spend huge amounts of time walking back and forth between locations. There are a number of adventures with a very linear room flow, Fascination comes to mind. But they usually suffer from this.

Awesome  - maybe this will save me from the problems I had with my own version of the GK interface. Did you manage to display the text in a box at the bottom of the screen as default? Ah, never mind, I'll just try it out

Thumbs up DragonRose!

I'm pretty sure that I have it working with 12 frames for each direction, but I might be wrong. If it's only 8 frames it sure looks smooth anyhow (and I'm using prerendered 3D characters as well).

Edit: Oh, I think I know what terranRICH meant. He meant the loops, not the frames. Each direction can only be one loop, not multiple tied together. Still, that's 20 frames per direction.

My guess is it's for the Who Wants to Live Forever prequel - an hour glass would make sense, wouldn't it?