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I've had a browse through a forums, and couldn't find anything on this.
I was wondering if it would be possible to change the colour of the black outline around fonts. I know you can do something like the credits of Cirque de Zale and have an outline font used as a standard font and change the colour noramlly, but that leaves transparency where the regular, un-outlined font would be.

What got me thinking about this was looking at ghost sprites, like LeChuck from SoMI and such, and how the effect was created by having blue outlines and black/dark fills. It would be cool to extend that effect to the character's speech.

Very nice background dude.

A couple things that bother me about it have to do with the horizontal beam nearest the back wall. The portrait looks like it's somehow jammed up behind it, and the cupboard thingy looks like it is very close to the wall, yet it goes higher then the beam behind it, which makes it seem like it must be cutting into it, or something. These things don't really make it look bad, they just bug me in a logical sort of sense 

Thanks for the feedback. I would have inked it at 0.2 before scanning, but didn't have a working pen  : I've found one now, though, so future backgrounds will be like that. Yeah, the beams bugged me too, I'll bear that in mind.

Looks good, Although I would prefer thinner lines myself..

I think it lacks a clear lightsource, it now looks like the chest is the lightsource.
Or maybe I'm wrong.

i love to see hand drawn styles, yours is looking good I would try to draw these things a lot larger to get in way more detail though. i know its well debated but i love the hand drawn style of MI3 CMI and the detail in those backgrounds

I think I'll definetely start off with a bigger source drawing. The one at the moment is a few centimeters smaller than A4, so maybe draw them at A3 or something. It'll be interesting to see what works. Inking by hand will lead to thinner lines, hopefully

Thanks

For my current A2 Graphics project I persuaded my teacher to let me make an adventure game. The theme of the game is "treasure", and I was going to try and go for an MI style humour-adventure. But anyways, I digress.

I decided to use hand-drawn backgrounds - coloured in Photoshop - for this project, and I thought I'd post a test room up here, for all of you to ponder over.



basically, I started off with a pencil sketch, and because all my inking pens ran out, inked it in Photoshop and then coloured it. The white space is where the Lucasarts style GUI goes (thanks to Proskito, of course )

Note the portrait. It's become kind of a thing with my projects.

My usual internet alias used to be Sum_Dood2003 (It's my email, to this day), but I kinda got bored with it, so I took up the name one of my Dungeons and Dragons characters had. The 87 is an in-joke with my friends.
To recap: DnD + In-jokes = Milo87!

Are you sure you want to go with such a blatant Blade Runner reference for the names? Could be a bit distracting...

Up until this point, I'd forgot that Rachel was also a Blade Runner character, oops. Deckard's name is supposed to be Decker, sorry. It's supposed to be a reference, not a complete rip-off, heheh.

Ok, here's what's happening.
Production will be on hold for a week, because I'm going on a college trip to Venice, Florence and Rome. I was hoping to have the game finished and ready for beta-testing before I left, but that's not going to happen, I'm afraid.

I've updated the production diary and the percentages, to give you some idea of the progress so far.

See y'all later, folks

Aargh! I downloaded the demo, and it opens OK, but it won't let me start a new game!! :@

For now, you have to right click on the menu items. That's a bug that's been fixed now

Aargh! I downloaded the demo, and it opens OK, but it won't let me start a new game!! :@

Thanks a lot It shouldn't be too long coming now!

I tried to make it do that, but I couldn't figure out how to. If you have any ideas, then I'd gladly listen to them

Thanks for the feedback!

[DEVELOPMENT:]

Just thought I'd share a new room I've just finished.


  The Red Light District

I'm particularly pleased with this background.

DEVELOPMENT:
>Another puzzle planned, and overall storyline for chapter 1 finished in semi-rough form.
>More character animations (specifically Rachel and Deckard's missing walkcycles, as well as the barman from the Hill)

The game will definitely have music. I already have three offers, including the great m0ds (which was a real honour when you look at his previous projects).

Hey, great game so far, I'm liking it! Where does the demo end, does it say?

It ends after you get back into the hotel room and take a look around
Thanks for the great feedback!

A new screenshot!
(This is where that mysterious corridor goes from the Hotel lobby)


The hotel bar

Also:

-Progress continues on the storyline
-Fixed a few more bugs

Speak to the Receptionist about everything
He gives you more clues.

Right, I've read all of your comments, and have fixed the following issues:

> The hotspot for the window now extends a bit further down the screen, so as not to conflict with the inventory Ypos.
> You can now only use the correct inventory item on the window to climb up (stupid me forgot to put a "if inventory item was used" conditional in :)
> Modified the mouse commands i.e.: Left click is now interact/talk, right click is look.
> There's now an explanation for the go-nowhere corridor.
> And one for your floor.

I will also try uploading the demo files to a different server (I was using a freewebs site I had, and it's file manager to upload, then linking to that). I'll peruse the server thread on this forum, and put a new demo up.

I hope this fixes everyone's qualms

I'm having a problem d/ling the demo, can't get it started.... Any ideas why???

Other people seem to have been able to download it... What exactly was the trouble you were having?

So instead I go outside and do the hat-rack puzzle to get into the room and end up talking to a disembodied voice about something I've never heard about.

Did you talk to the detective so he lets you into the room? It shouldn't be possible to get into the room before talking to him.

As for the open door, it will lead somewhere, but it wasn't relevent to the demo. I guess a simple way of stopping the player going in there would have been a good idea, hehe.

I'll reverse the mouse commands

The player's room/corridor is what I'm working on next, so you'll be able to go there in the same way you can get to the other floors.

Thanks for the feedback!

Hey, everybody

Just thought you'd like to know, the DEMO is available over in the demos section (of course ).

Any feedback would be greatly appreciated

Here's a new screenshot for all you lovely folks


An alleyway

Excuse it being a bit dark, but it is a dingy alleyway. It also looks brighter in-game

Also of note: A demo featuring the first puzzle will be out soon, hopefully. It's just a bit heavy on the animation.
And! My good friend and general very talented music-maker Mr Scientist has agreed to do the music for Dark Lake. He's sent me a preview of an ambient track, and it's sounding very atmospheric.

The room design and the athmosphere reminds me in Yahtzee games.
Could it be, that you got your inspiration from one of those?
Anyway, looking good!

I was wondering how long it would be before someone noticed the Yahtzee influence  I love 5/7 days and Trilby's notes, and I think they stand as Hallmarks in thriller adventure gaming. So yes, inspiration did come from playing them

how far from completion is the first episode (prediction)?

Oh boy, uhm... I've been working on this in my spare time solidly, so I'd say a few weeks. It doesn't help that I have some college exams coming up, so that's taking up my time too. Still, I'm working at a pretty fast pace, and have a quite good idea of where the story is going, and that always helps, heheh.

A couple more screenshots, including a room I've just finished drawing. These are from the Hill Hotel, which is the first location Ethan goes to in Dark Lake.


There you go, Darth: The Hill lobby, without the journal GUI


The new room: A corridor in the Hill.

Thanks for the kind words to everyone who has replied.

I love these types of games! Very Ben Jordan-ish

Looks a bit scary though. Will you be able to die in it?

Hmm, that's a tricky one. I usually dislike adventure games that kill the player without due warning, so I'll probably include the ability to die, but not a lot, and not without it being pretty obvious that the situation is potentially dangerous

Poor Cosmo, she's always sooo afraid of dying.....LOL!!!  Anyhow, it looks like you have a solid start here. The graphics look really nice and the story sounds excellent. I can't wait to play this.... Also, welcome to the forums and our great community!!!

Thanks I really appreciate the positive feedback: It's a great incentive to finish the project.