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Wow, that's amazing :o
I can't tell if it's 3d prerendered or drawn, but either way, great job! I love the haystacks, and the bricks, the fence, the ground, the sky... If I try to be really nitpicky, I'dsay the roof needs a bit more 'depth' or 'thickness', ot doesn't seem like hay or tiles at the moment. What's that greyish mark at the bottom of the house?
I dunno how it would look with something added in the foreground, it may ruin the awesome atmosphere. I can sense this is a dark night, gloomy possibly, mysterious and tense.. Mmm, the atmosphere...

May I ask how you made it? What program, technique, and such. I agree with OSC, you must be a pro artist .

Thanks, her name was margo.
The story sounds fun .

Heh, well, actually I'd prefer to take a bit of work off you, and instead of being a character (unless you have a lazy female in the game.. that's me ), there could just be a reference fo some sort, like the wanted poster, or an ad somewhere, or whatever else. Actually I might prefer it being a reference to my late dog, if that fits in with the story.
Mmm, I love medievil games.. fantasy.. nature...
What's the story, btw?

Hmm, the whole alliance thing sounds a bit over the top, though interesting, but some training in actual betatesting is a great idea, as betatesting isn't just playing through the game, it's a good idea to make suggestions, note down problems, etc. I read an articleon 'A' which was nice, though rather short .

Do you mean you want the camera to "freeze frame" all the action on screen? Well, you could stop all animations in place, but it may not work very well, and taking a screenshot would picture the gui too, so, umm, I really don't know. Maybe it's possible to base everything happening on a timer, and then stop the timer, like stopping time. Or if this is a cutscene you could just make an avi of it, though it sounds like it isn't.

Ofcourse if you mean something else then this was some rather interesting but useless brainstorming.

edit: wait, now I'm pretty sure I understood wrong, but never mind.

Ooh, damn me and my lateness! I'd like to beta test If there aren't any spaces left, though, I'll just be glad to play it when it's finished.

Yeah, MAGS is good for inspiring ideas.
It seems like the story I sent isn't quite compatible with your art style, as it is mostly outdoors, and there are quite a few characters. However, if the number of rooms can be stretched, a few adjustments can be made to decrease the number of characters.
And I wouldn't mind working at it some more, adding more detail to the puzzles, it's a bit vague right now.

Well, I don't have any rejected stories, because all the stories I think of I will want to make sometime, and I generally put off most of them because they are very long. However, I am very lazy, and still don't find the storywriting stage very demanding of hard work. So, I'll be glad to try and write something for you, if inspiration comes.
Will any story do? Do you have any requirements for theme, style, setting, art(things you find easier or harder to draw)?
I tend to imagine stories very cinematically, and often I put off my stories simply cause I've imagined something that I can't draw or animate.
Also, about length: more specification? A lot can happen in 2-4 rooms. How many characters, animations, puzzles, twists, depth of the story?

Good luck!

edit: Well, I sent you a story by PM .

[Ryukage -]

Whoa, I didn't notice any of these threads before, I should read this forum more often..
Anyway, I have been interested in lucid dreams for quite some time, and have very recently finished a project on the subject of lucid dreaming (a few days ago). I've had some lucid dreams, and I'm glad to see many people here are interested in them too.
I am very interested in how lucid dreams can bring about creativity for game making. This can happen in regular dreams too, but more rarely.

I'm gonna read the thread now .

P.s. Does anyone have any information about the healing quality of lucid dreams? As it turns out, excercising skills, even those of malfunctioning muscles for example, can induce healing.

About falling asleep, I often get a similar feeling when waking up, like I was on top of the bed and fell down with a thump. It used to puzzle me, though not really scare, but now I think it might be an OBE.

I haven't read the thread yet, but has anyone had shared lucid dreams before? Apparantly it's possible to share lucid dreams, or have precognitive lucid dreams which take place in the real world at any time or place, and thus you could try observing the future (all in theory of course) or changing things in the real world. This concept really intriques me, and also it may be connected to deja-vus I often have.

Ryukage - Wow, that's some very interesting information. It's a mystery to me how the brain of the person can remember and "feel" so many things...
Perhaps these wrinkles dissapear with time when being unused? Could this be a method to forget something? Also, maybe going over memories while in a lucid dream could sharpen the memory?

Now I have a headache .

Congratulations ElaineMC! I look forward to the rules next month.

The only thing that slightly bothered me was the scaling of Felicia - in some of the screens she looks like a small violet square . The dialog faces were absolutely stunning, and added an inconcievable amount of personality to the characters. Wonderful!

Yep, thats great advice, I always carry some paper or a notebook and a pen with me everywhere, even when I think i wont be able to write for some reason (darkness, etc).

I suppose what should be considered is that games can be made in many different ways and methods. The only rule is that almost always (even this has some flexibility) you need to design the setting and character first. In games with more than one setting, that is they move forward in location, i think it's enough to first design just the first setting and then move forward. Contrasts between location moods or backgrounds are nice to have, especcially to give a message about the character or the game/story.
Anyway, after this, going straight from the end, something we know needs to be the conclusion, could work aswell, while thinking what caused something and why.
Another way is to first have an undetailed story flow without any detail on the character or setting, and fill those in afterwards, once the story/plot is finished.
Yet another way would be to first design interesting locations, characters, etc, and then link them with a story.

I am personally eager to try out a method which would in theory allow a lot of designer sympathizing towards the player. You could build the story bit by bit from the begining, statring with the begining status quo and moving on to a certain conflisct or problem that occurs/is caused by an NPC or the protagonist, and then put yourself "into the players shoes", so to speak, and imagine an area populated with certain logical items, people, concepts, etc, and how one could use it in imaginitive ways to solve a problem.
Now that I think about it, is a game possible without a conflict, or something going wrong/being wrong? Will a game about a perfectly happy person, who decides to walk 100 km to the next town, for no particular reason, be interesting? Of course for it to be not just an interactive story in which you need to click to progress, there need to be puzzles and obstacles, or meaningfull choices along the way which present conflict. But does the actual story require something being wrong or messed up? Hmm, I think it's just the wording that bugs me, of course the story needs a challenge, a goal, a problem, except it doesn't have to be something going wrong.

Anyway, thats about all my thoughts for now. Discussions like these really give me a lot to think about. Btw, I find a lot of my ideas come when I'm sleep deprived too, in the middle of the night or just the next day after very little sleep. Sortof like insomniactic ideas, heh.
There was one night on which I was sitting with lots of artciles on game design, and writing everything that came to mind (and there was a whole lot of it). "I'll just read a few more lines" became "I'll just finish these four articles..." I went to sleep at 5 in the morning.

P.s. Anyone know where people study game design, anywhere? I know there are people studying it, but dunno where.

Hmm, thats an interesting method, shbaz. I might try it. I agree that planning is important, but that some freedom is required for creativity to occur and for motivation. I tend to work out the story fully first when I'm writing a large design, but oddly I find that I have a detailed begining (introduction), and a clear view (often) of the end and the ending events. In the middle I have a certain area or concept but don't have it fleshed out at all. It almost feels like no story is going on there, and like it's just puzzles, but of course I would later on integrate story into it to make puzzles significant.
Actually, working from the end isn't a very good idea in some cases, because it makes the game very linear. Non-linear games that have more than one ending (or have just one, it doesnt matter) are veery hard to do this way, and normal games would turn out more linear than they already are because of the very straight line goinf from end to start.

It is also important to know your backstory, setting, and characters before thinking of what happens in the end, but after that it is possible to think on a level of "what could have caused state X to exist". Thinking this way would still allow non linearity as several things could have caused X. Still, working from begining to end is similar, as one can determine what certain events or actions
Hmm, a dillema. I guess experimenting is what is needed.

As for getting ideas, I have lately tried to get ideas from my rather boring real life, and surprisingly I got an idea for a very interesting puzzle a few days ago . Also, books, movies, and all forms of art, can inspire ideas, but one way that is a favorite of mine is just sitting dwon for some day dreaming and brainstroming. Anything that comes to mind, maybe thinking of a theme or a certain setting or concept that hasn't been explored...

Whew, that's wnough for now.

Ive just cut my game plan in half and stripped it dwon to nothing, but I cant get any work done in the near time because Im connstantly preparing for tests or we have guests over or I have homework.. Basically, if I finish it in time ill release it of course, but dont count on it .

I think the probem with the couch is that the legs are connected to the handles, so to me it looks like a couch on the floor with huge hands and fists on the ground. I can almost picture it opening a huge tothy mouth and eating people lol . I'd try seperating the handles from the legs. However the interesting thing is that the way it is now looks interesting in a way. Of course since this is by a book this may not be fitting. You decide.

I kind of like the white glow blurry edges, especcially under the closet, but it does clash a bit with other things, you could try applying that style to the rest of the image, or at least all the walls. I also like the color you used on the floor and walls, and the door.

edit: Things to add- Maybe cracks on the wall if its supposed to look like a neglected room, and hmm let's see. Maybe if she's just storing her heritage there she could use it for storing other things, junk of some sort? Maybe add a picture if appropriate or another window, or a small cabinet with drawers?

Apart from what everyone said being true, I really agree with Trumgottist on details. I often ramble a bit too much on these so I'm glad Iwas  spared that.

Now, when saying 'real' I dont think of it as the game being an experience that resembles real life, and in fact I am not at all fond of realistic graphic, but it is rather the immerssion of the game, that should, on some level, cause the player to forget (isn't there a word for this?) that he is playing a game, and thus anything at all that makes sense in the game world is 'real'. Is this what you meant timh?

Now, other than details, which are needed in every part of the game for all purposes, immerssion, or 'realism' is also echieved, in my opinion, by having interesting stories, surprising and/or emotional twists in the plot, dialogue, deep fleshed out characters, and athmosphere, including graphics and music of course. The comment that text only adventures can have "good graphics" is abrilliant point, as having no graphics and no music does set an atmosphere as well, and though it is often dark and mysterious, it doesn't have to be.

I wouldnt really want a player to say or think that a situation is possible, wether its in real life or in the realistic game world (heh, Ive been meaning to start a discussion about realism in games, something sorta similar to this ). I prefer that the player feels, subconciously, that he is not in a game, and only later he will realise he was so immersed that everything seemes realistic. In real life, we do not think all of a sudden, wow this is possible, or gee this can happen, we just accept it because we are used to it. The level of immerssion I hope to see in games some day in the far future is like that of real life, or rather that of a dream. The most unusual and illogical things can happen in dreams, and yet we do not take them as such, we go about the dream and everything makes sense.
This is all theory though, and implementation is difficult. I think the truest immerssion wil come when, at some late time, scent, touch, and taste are implemented in games, but for now, and in general, great immerssion can be achieved with graphics, sounds (not just music, sound effects and voice acting too), and most importantly story, character, atmosphere, characters, dialogues, and one more thing I forgot which is puzzles. Especcially in AGS games, a surprising puzzle, and puzzles that make sense within the game. See my post in the last GTD on atmosphere for a long example I wrote.

P.s. One more thing is that all the aspects and parts need to have a little something that increases immerssion, and they should all work well together too, otherwise these inconcistencies(sp?) or clashes will get in the way and destroy all the realism you may have established. As an AGS game developer I find it easier and more productive, for me, to focus on story and characterss rather than graphics and music, as writing is my stronger point. I sometimes feel that my writing only works for adventure games, but I actually think very cinematically and verbally at the same time, which I think/hope is a good method. Saying that games cant be as immersive as books and films isn't true, and there are even a few games I consider examples of this, such as (at the risk of being repetetive), surprise surprise, Grim Fandango.

[2003]

Heh, a nice idea, do you do this every year?
My vote is cast.
Oh btw, why arent the January games-- oh wait, I see, 2003

Well the first shoe looks like a flat one and the second like a helled one, so that may be the problem.

Anyways, I love the wolf! And I quite the barin actually, the transparency idea is nice but that would mean it has to be transparent on all views and that could be a pain. Anyway, maybe changing the brain's color to a more purplish tone would help?
I love the idea of a guy and a werewolf being roomates

Wow, people have made progress

Im gonna leave my yet unfinished GUI alone now and start on the main character. So far what I've planned is motivating me, but I dunno if Ill be able to implement it perfectly in time, so either Ill release the game later or release it undetailed and then update.

Anyway, "The Resurrector" is now the official title, and here is a short description of the game's story:

A dark being named The Resurrector has zombified most of the people in the land, and terror is at loose...

Umm, well thats all I can reveal Im afraid. Ill finish the main character and you should know more then.

Hmm, I cant see HappyHobo's image..
Maybe you can upload it to a different server?

Heh, '42' was expected.. : but nicely drawn.
I like the "no death" sign

edit:
Well, I still cant see the image im afraid, so out of the other two, the winner is:

JimmyShelter!

[The Ressurector.]

hmm, isn't this a leap year? wither way, I think its still enough time from, say 25th to 28th or 29th to votre (normal months have 30 or 31 days, that is only 3 or 4 days for voting, which isnt much different from 25th to 28th).
Anyway I dont really mind cause I'm making something short, but just wanted to point this out.

edit: I think Ill challenge myself with a low resolution and pallete (first time) in this game, and use it to try out stuff.

Current (official?) working title: The Ressurector.

Also, it didnt turn out as short as I had planned (I guess I can have visionary ideas with any topic, hehe), but if my calculatins are correct I have enough time. It wont be very gruesome but there is ebough blood in my plan to satisfy you, I hope .