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Every time someone posts about this I always think it's either a game based on the band of "Magic Carpet Ride" fame or the Hermann Hesse book. Now THAT would make a good game, wandering around the magic theater, playing chess...

I have dug up this thread to officially announce that I am now, surely, 100% going to Mittens!

I will be arriving in Athens at 5:55pm on Sunday, August 14th.

See you suckers there!

I too am celebrating the passing of this law. I saw the guy on the news too, though I'm not sure if we have different stations or what in Miami and the Ft. Lauderdale/Coral Springs area. It was probably a different guy. Anyway, he was just as stupid.

I never understood how you could listen to the bass so loud and still enjoy the music. The guy on the news was like "I want my eyes to shake!" As if people down here didn't drive badly enough already, we don't need idiots with blurred vision caused by bass on top of their talking on cell phones and leaving their blinkers on forever!

Okay, rant over.

I'm in as well.

They were rotoscoped. Well, in a manner of speaking, they were. 

Thanks for pointing out the walkable area bug, ildu. I've fixed it now.

As for the map, that is one of many differences that I've fixed. It is much easier to read in the full game.

GarageGothic: The whole Ben sprite is new, not just the up/down views. You'll notice he doesn't have that short disporoportionate cartooniness to him anymore.

You asked for it, you got it. TOYOTA!

*Ahem* I mean, here's a demo of Day 1.  Please bear in mind this is an old version, meaning it's pretty rough. Several animations, characters, and some conversations are missing.  But at least it makes it different enough that when the full game is released you won't already know what's coming.

http://www.grundislavgames.com/bj5demo.zip

Enjoy.

Grundislav, how big crew work over the BJ series dont' tell me that you work alone...

Of course not. Ghormak does the music, Darkstalkey did the sounds in Case 4, and AGA has contributed puzzle ideas (blame the compass/wall/stick puzzle in Case 1 on him!)

Sure, here's another screenshot:



PROGRESS REPORT:
The game is roughly 1/5 done. This means that day 1 of 5 is completely playable. Day 2 is close to being done, but this game is going to have a LOT of animations, so it's taking longer than usual. It should be out before year's end.

Another, somewhat simpler option you could look into (if you have the patience) is taking still frames with a digital camera.  For a walk cycle, for example, just photograph yourself, or your model, in each frame of the cycle.  Then you can just resize and reference or trace over when doing your sprite.  This is the method I've been using lately, and it works well.  Granted, you won't have much luck with animations that require jumping or moving cloth or things like that, but for most stuff it works.

Good luck!

I'm also waiting to hear if I got my time off of work. They told me they'd let me know this week, so hopefully I'll have my flight booked by this Friday.  I see no reason for them not giving me the time off. Fingers crossed!

Let me know what you brits do, via PM or otherwise.  I'm still waiting to hear if I got the time off of work, so I haven't booked my flight yet. 

I'm also, for all intents and purposes, in.  (The big "if" being if I can get time off work, but I'll beg and plead).

I do not have a tent, and lugging one over from the USA would be a pain in the ass anyway, so someone's going to have to get cozy with me.

I looked into flights, and the best I found was in the $1243 area.  Now, I don't care about the dates, but coordination with Brits-wise, it'd be better the week of the 15th, since I'd have to leave on Sunday the 14th, and come back the 21st.

Darth, if you're seriously planning on coming, PM me and let me know.  It'd be very nice to have a travel companion on the 8-hour flight to the UK, especially a fellow Floridian 

Did you exhaust all conversation topics with Annie? (the blond woman in the house).  The old man's appearance in the bar is triggered by her telling you about him.

None of that 6th Sense stuff here!  Alice Wilkins isn't exactly a unique name, it could have been a coincidence.  I've seen my name on a grave in a cemetery, and I'm not dead...am I?

However, I did realize that there's another Wilkins mentioned someplace else in the series that could very well be used as a plot device...

This is the best news I got todayÃ, 

I love to see Alice appearing in the plot. After I realized that Alice Wilkins is a young student from America as well as an old Scottish lady who's buried at the Smailholm cemetry, I was wondering what kind of person she is and whether there are more secrets that have to be revealed :p

I'm impressed that someone spotted that! Good job!  Unfortunately, there is no deeper meaning to it, other than an odd coincidence, since I guess I had the name "Alice Wilkins" floating around in my subconscious.  I myself didn't realize it until I played through BJ3 and noticed the name on the grave.

Will the plot be non-linear this time as in case 3? Whatever the answer, I am sure that this game will rock.

No, there won't be path branches this time around.  It's difficult to do them and not mess things up in the scope of the whole series.  However, I can tell you that the final case in the series will be the mother of all non-linearity. 

Can I make a request while this is still under development? It would be very cool if the notebook was actually used throughout the game this time. In the previous games, it's almost as if you had forgotten about it after the first couple of puzzles.

Yes, this has been a criticism I've taken to heart.  In this case, the notebook serves two purposes: its usual role as a reminder for important details, and also as an inventory item so you can write down things or drawings that might come in handy later.

I don't mean to bitch, but isn't that clearly Chinese architecture in the first screenshot and not Japanese? Looks like it's done from a photo of the Shaolin Temple gates. Correct me if I'm wrong, but certainly the symbols on the sign aren't Japanese. I don't know if these kinds of things bug anyone else, but I've been coarse about people mixing up Japan and China, since the general misconception that ninjas are chinese .

Is it? If so, blame Canada! I made that background referencing (read:tracing) a photograph of a "Japanese Garden" in Montreal.  The symbols aren't accurate, since the photo was kind of blurry to begin with and it got more blurry when I resized it.  Far be it from me to confuse China and Japan! (It certainly bugs me when that's done).  And as a side note, there will be no ninjas in this game.

I've begun working on Case 5. I know I said I was taking a "long" break from game-making, but you know how it is when inspiration strikes.Ã,  At any rate, this one will probably take a bit longer to release since it's more art-intensive.Ã,  On to the good stuff:

PLOT: After the events in London, Ben has returned home for a much needed break from paranormal investigating.Ã,  One day, he gets a conference call from his friends Simon Booth and Alice Wilkins.Ã,  It seems Simon has found out about some strange murders going on in the city of Osaka, Japan, and he suspects there is a paranormal edge to the story.Ã,  Ben, Simon, and Alice travel to Japan to investigate.Ã,  However, once they arrive and start looking into the killings, they realize there is much more to the story than they first thought.

FEATURING:
- No more annoying cellular phone!
- Graphic overhaul: More realistic sprites, backgrounds, and character portraits.
- The closest to full-length Ben Jordan game yet.
- Another fine soundtrack by Ghormak.

SCREENSHOTS:

Ben and Alice at the gates of the village of Asuka.


Ben consults with Inspector Yoshi.


Simon reveals a rather disturbing secret.

Some guy who went to the convention came into the toy department at Target today.  I know this because I was working there and he told me he had been to the convention in Indiana.  He bought 16 clone trooper action figures and said they were going to be the biggest thing ever, since people were going to make dioramas.

Then about an hour later another guy came in asking for the same thing.  I had to inform him he had been beaten to the punch by some other guy.  I bet he went home and cried.