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I like this version the best. I would like to see the "walk" change to "look" if over a hotspot and the "open" change to whatever action is available... or cycle through if there is more than one alternate action. Possibly a help screen/tutorial might be in order, but I think it would be easy to get into throughout the game and continuing into the other games if it is a series.

I, personally don't have an issue with the font, it isn't too fancy and all the letters are easily recognizable and the style fits with the scifi aspect of the game.

About the mouse overs, I'm not sure if this would be easy, but I think it might be cool if the image faded to white then orange... or orange then white when selected. It wouldn't be a long animation, but it would help the feeling that there are lights under that panel... some sort of futuristic touch screen

I think though, that the title of the game in the corner needs some work... maybe if you took "By the Sword' out and rendered the chapter title with the beat-up font.. or distress the text a bit with the eraser in photoshop.

Updated the screens and progress notes in the first post. I originally wanted the character to float around but couldn't figure out how to animate that so I gave her magnetic boots. I'll probably research that for the second game

I'm still working on the bridge and the engine room, and have just unlocked the secrets of dialog. Does anyone have any suggestions on how to animate climbing a ladder?

Still no shadows yet, but I'm looking into it. I want to see that the basic stuff works before I add that part.

I'd like to bring up the Telltale Sam & Max series, as well as Bone 1 and 2. They use 3D... but they play like a 2D a 2D point and click game.

Thanks for the comments guys. I'll see about that shadow... is there a way to make part of the character semi transparent? I'm sure I'll figure it out.

I don't have any ideas about what sort of music, but the song that's playing repeatedly in my head is "Welcome Back/Space Girl" and "Mission" By the Phenomenauts... a punk/rockabilly band in space. But Red Dwarf also comes to mind. I'll try to get a bit more of the game together and then I'll see about the music.

I know those of you in the Crit Lounge have seen a couple of these before. I just now feel that I have a fairly good handle on this and am slowly filling in the code to my first game...

Murphy's Salvage

The game follows the crew of the salvage ship Buther... the oldest ship in Murphy's fleet. The main character is Wombat Rowe, and she's the person that actually goes outside the ship to cut up and collect the salvage. That being said, she's the lowest crew member on the totem pole and does many menial tasks around the ship. She's also never been to Earth as it was accidentally terraformed into a parking lot before she was born.

This is Wombat in her orderly room, checking out her posters. It also shows the inventory and setting button.


Down in the cargo bay with Ted the robot. Yes, I realize Ted looks like a locker, but that's his back.


The bunk of the only other full human onboard. I plan to add a few more floating objects to the mix... things that move more when you click them once they stop.


Updated Progress:

Backgrounds 100%
Characters 100%
Animation 100% - Just need to finish up some special animations for certain rooms.
Story 100% - Now that everything is set up, I'm going to go back and rewrite things to flow better.
Scripting 40% - Slow going, but its a learning experience.
Sound/Music 2% - I found a few sound effects that I can use. Not sure about music though.

The save dialogue works great for me, but I get an error in the load panel.

In the line:
function lstSaveGames_OnSelectionChange(GUIControl *control)
{
RestoreGameSlot(lstSaveGames.SaveGameSlots[index]);
}

I get an error that says undefined symbol 'index'. I'm new to this so I think I'm probably missing something really basic.

Thanks for the help so far!

Floating poses, I'm fairly happy with the front and back views... but I don't really like the side.

         

Did you have a whole bunch of language packs installed? Those take up a massive amount of space. I know when I installed sp1, I deleted all the ones I didn't need.

It's getting late and my character walks like a drunk... so I'm going to take a break and try to explain what I'd like to do.

I was thinking that for the start of the game, the character floats around... walkable areas are large enough so the person can float above the floor, but wouldn't go so high as to hit her head on the ceiling.

But what if one of the puzzles leads to the character getting a pair of magnetic boots in order to solve another puzzle, the character has to be wearing the boots (equipped somehow) and walking on only the floor - the walkable area would be shrunk.

If I can turn on and off walkable areas, could I say... have two, but have them touching and then turn off the higher one or is that a bit too difficult?

Edit: I got the basic concept to work, but in very basic code. Now that I know the theory works, I can continue with a few things

function oboots_Interact()
{
oboots.Visible = false;
player.AddInventory(iboot);
Display("My magnetic boots. I think I'll put them on.");
cEgo.ChangeView(2);
RemoveWalkableArea(1);

}

Question... I know I can use views to get a different walk cycle... would it be possible to change the walkable areas in a room depending on what character you are playing?

Or maybe a way to have a duplicate room with different walkable areas and hotspots that replaces the regular room if a character gets a specific item?

So many possibilities... so much coding to learn...

I haven't quite figured out the mechanics of this yet, but I would like to start the game without gravity... and I haven't done the floating animation yet and of course that would be different than a character that's say... standing in a pair of magnetic boots. (View 1 is the floating character animated and View 2 is the walk cycle)

I haven't drawn it yet, but I was hoping to have a few objects animated in the foreground and when you click on them, the character will say something.

The plants are fake, because I think it's rather funny seeing a plant glued to the floor. The bass was going to float in the corner.

Anyway, thanks for all the input... I have a few more ideas I want to play with before I start trying to figure out how to script this thing.

Edits:




BTW, the boots are magnetic, that's why they're stuck to the wall. It still looks a bit empty, but she is rather new and a messy cabin an an anti-gravity setting seems rather unsafe.

All it takes is focus and determination! It seems like you're ready to tackle this project now... and it seems like you're off to a running start already.

Good luck and be sure to let us know how it's going!

Instead of making many threads, I'm just going to use this one for all the things I need help with... until animation, of course. But I'll tackle that when I come to it.

This is one of the crew's cabins. I know the bed thing looks insanely huge, but I can't seem to get the perspective right.

I added a vent in the floor of the hallway up there. Thanks for all the support guys. If only I could figure our how best to draw the bridge and cargo bay... and the engine room. Ergh, that's 6 rooms, not 5.

Anyway, this is Ted, the robot... He sort of floats around and insults people.

I wasn't planning on every object being pushable, or floating. Some objects would be safely stored in cabinets or containers, held down with nets or hidden under or in things. Having everything free floating seems a bit like a safety hazard.

I was thinking maybe one or two puzzles being pushable, like say... several boxes in the cargo bay got loose and the player has to get them back under the net in a certain order so they all fit. The physics don't have to be perfect, because it's sci fi, they could have at least a system put in place so that they all hover the right way up, have some sort of propulsion units, or certain walkways are partially magnetized...

Also, concerning walkable areas, I'm sure that there wouldn't be the entire screen, as the character wouldn't want to get too close to the walls or ceiling, or exposed pipes or wires. I guess that would depend on how the backgrounds are drawn and the puzzles play out, since ideally, I'd like to have the player pick up a pair of magnetic boots and turn them on... for a normal walk cycle and have it so that you can only solve certain things with them... but that seems like more coding than I can handle at the moment.

I have a feeling that I'm going to do all the backgrounds and animation before I even think about scripting floating objects and alternate walk cycles.

Here's a bit of a redraw showing a bit of shape. I didn't intend for her to be really girly or busty, but making her look a bit more feminine won't hurt. I've started calling her Wombat, but that's because she reminds me of a grown up version of a character I used to draw.

I haven't touched the hallway again, but I intend to do it tomorrow. I want to add more pipes and wires to make the ship less clean and more of a "scrap hauler".

EDIT:

So I decided to edit the hall a bit more, I made the colors more drab and made the corridor a bit more tube-like. I also added a couple of light panels on the ceiling.

I was thinking about having a few puzzles deal with floating objects or magnetic boots. I'm not really sure how the coding would go... but I'm liking the idea of all the interesting things that in theory, could be done with this situation.

Hmm... maybe this won't be the "simple" game I first thought.

I'm making a game set on a rather old and low-tech space ship and I'm thinking about parts of the ship not having gravity... or the ship not having gravity at all.

On one hand, walk cycles would be a bit more interesting as the characters will be floating about instead of walking.

But on the other hand... would it really help the game at all? Objects the character has to interact with would either have to float, or be in containers... attached to things...

Has anyone else pondered or tackled this issue?