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[Monkey Island Speech Project]

I'm happy about all the new Monkeys. They look good enough for me. So far.

Too bad that due to the remake our Monkey Island Speech Project is rather pointless now. Especially too bad for the actors who recorded hundreds of lines already.

Thanks, Grim.

Franko is the key to the whole game. Basically it all revolves around the main hero's personality, quirks and personal problems rather than some great Quest. Even if in the end it is a comedy and not a psychological drama.

Does this sound like fun? 

I haven't had time to work much on it, but I tried fixing the perspective errors and adjusting the POV slightly.

Does this look workable? The only problem I can see (apart from minor things like the countertop surface of the cupboard in the corner being off-perspective) is that the little cabinet/desk on the left is probably too low for a grownup to sit by.

Next step: put in a test character to see if the scaling and angle looks OK.

The only potential problem I can think of is that the table may obscure too much the children characters. Otherwise I'd be already making a game using that sketch, but that's just my game designing style - not a lot preparations or even finished graphics before putting everything together for a test drive (with puzzles and all).

Reminds me of the movie Cube.

Very nice. I hope the cats will show up in the future episodes, they usually are a blast to have in a cartoon.

I'm curious,  do any of the people who make the cartoons belong to the team that works on the game? (other than the voice talent and yourself, I mean)

Also, I wanted to say that I was recently allowed to put in a superb composition from a jazz band called Kattorna which I had the great pleasure of hearing live. I hope this music piece will add to the experience. It certainly surpasses the quality of everything else in the game.

I would be interested to see how you combine jazz with the fantasy-world setting.

It's not such a terribly traditional fantasy-world setting. Still, there will be those players who will find that the music creates an interesting atmosphere for the place, and there will be those that would rather... run away  .

A small update

I added a new screenshot showcasing the game's "verbcoin" and the hero's front pose (see first post in the thread).

Also, I wanted to say that I was recently allowed to put in a superb composition from a jazz band called Kattorna which I had the great pleasure of hearing live. I hope this music piece will add to the experience. It certainly surpasses the quality of everything else in the game.

I'm a little bit behind the schedule with the demo. I should finish a fully playable version this week (unless I encounter some unexpected problems), but I wish to do some more testing before I release it for everyone. If anyone is interested in taking a part in this, please PM me - I'll be glad to have more testers.

Currently, the demo release is planned for early June, so keep an eye out.

A really good game with superb production values (a link to my full review is on the game's page ). I had more fun with Murder in a Wheel though.

Played the demo thanks to anian. Intriguing, but I think it would hook more people up if it was longer, or at least had some sort of revelation at the end. Overall, the atmosphere and visuals remind me a lot of the Darkseed series (which I like quite a bit).

Are you saying it's a good thing? 

Yeah. I think it would be cool if in the game you explained their friendship a bit.

The graphics look simple, but nice.

Keep up the good work.

Took the demo for a spin just before going to sleep.

The atmosphere is very cool - the art and music work very well.

Puzzles are intuitive and work well.

The main hero looses a lot of his toughness after the intro. I'd prefer he kept it.

The sprites for the man living in the apartment seem very much WIP. Probably they are, but it took me out of the game a bit so I wanted to mention it.

Storywise - I hope it's not just another mob story and there's some twist to it.

Thanks, I should have guessed.

The webiste doesn't load.

Could you say something about what kind of puzzles are in the game?

What are these white things lying around the body? Broken bones? A torn note?

If anyone is interested, you can follow entries in my development diary for the game here. I keep them rather vague for now, since I don't won't to reveal too much before the release of the demo.

Once there, don't be afraid to leave comments about how exciting and informative the diary is. Even nasty ones.

Is the friendship between Presto and Cookie a big part of the story? I think male friendship is an underused theme in adventure games.

The main problem I think is that there is only a very subtle change of the legs position between some frames and a great one between others.

The walkcycle doesn't look too bad IMO, at least it does its job, but overall choosing an realistic art style in high res for the game might be the death of you. Precisely because of the huge animation work involved. Rotoscoping, while no picnic, might be the only sensible way to pull it off and live to tell the tale.

Now that I think about it the coat may have originated from an image of a leprechaun imposing on my poor subconscious mind while I tried really hard to be creative and achieve a striking look for the hero. Hopefully, I won't be sued because of this resemblance.

I also didn't like TLJ very much. Rather boring, cliched story, average puzzles. Too much unimaginative talk about balance, chaos, storytelling and the like. Also, the focus on a teenager leaving her alcoholic father behind, starting to live independently and hanging out with friends is something off-putting for me personally. Feels like I just switched on TV.

The only thing I truly liked was the ambition to present a complex, epic tale that celebrates the art of storytelling in many different ways. Too bad the game wasn't better written.

I'd like it to be the first, but looking realistically probably the second.