Messages

Thanks everybody! I'm happy to see so many people interested.

I think the inter-character dialog will be voice acted. I have access to most of the recording equipment I'll need. I don't see the need to do voice acting for every bit of text though (like when the character is inspecting objects).

For the demo, what I'm thinking of doing is for people to be able to download the whole game, but offer a booklet that you can order that will have answers to copy protection questions. For example, at a certain point in the game you may be asked "Repeat ninja proverb #37 to me."

I don't know. I'm still thinking about it. I may just make a plain old demo.

TheBoldSlasher:
Ã,  Thanks for the support!

Nikolas:
Ã,  Ã, I totally agree. While I would like to do some 3D games in the future, I think people need to see that cool, nice looking, modern games can and will be done in 2D and that that is a good thing!

Pablo:
Ã,  Ã, I hadn't seen that game before. The graphics in it are really nice! I think the last adventure game I played was The Longest Journey. I got stuck and I hate cheating. I haven't played video games seriously for about a year and a half. 12 hour workdays in front of a PC will do that to you. One of the things I like about the AGS games is that they are short. I played through Winter Rose and Al-Quest by Baron recently and enjoyed them both.
Ã,  Ã, For the game, I'm not sure. If the playthough time is only a few hours I think I will charge maybe $9.99 USD, but if the game has replay value and takes around 8 hours to complete maybe as much as $19.99 USD (which is fairly standard for indie games from what I've seen).

Redwall:
Ã,  I hate pirates! I would rather commit sebuku with a frisby than make a game with pirates in it. With all those Monkey Island games, you would think that adventure gamers had gotten enough pirates, but nooooo...
Ã,  As for campy, I really want the story to be on the razor's edge between serious and silly. It will be unlike any game I have played before, and I've played a lot.
Ã,  Ã, 
YakSpit:
Ã,  It is true that I am going for a kind of Metal Gear, undersaturated look. I still may bump it up a bit and see how I like it. It really does seem a bit different full screen, but I am always open to suggestions. I haven't made the perfect image yet, and I am still trying.
Ã,  I am going to push hard for that date. I am optimizing my workflow and coming up with checklists to help with getting everything done. That and working all day every day.

Everyone:
Ã, I don't want to give away too much of the story, especially since it is still may change a little as I work on it. I don't think the story will be for everyone, but it will be more cool than goofy. The game will have a number of features that will differentiate it from earlier adventure games. I want this to be an evolution of the old adventure game gameplay... I don't want to say too much. It will be months before it is done! How about this feature, you will be able to play through the game without getting stuck.
Ã, I think I will end up updating once every couple of weeks, but I will try to keep up with people who post to the thread.

[The Story:]

12 East Productions presents:

How to be a Ninja (working title)

The Story:

Stan is a struggling artist trying hard to make a name for himself. His life takes a bizarre turn when he accidently comes into possession of a book. On the tattered cover is the title "How to be a Ninja"

Some screenshots:







Development Progress:

Story: 50%
Scripting: 8%
Graphics: 12%
Sound/Music: 0%

Expected completion date: June 2006

Development Diary:

Hey everyone. I have been looking for a nice, stable engine to develope a commercial game with. AGS fits the bill. I'm a medeocre coder and I was happy with how robust the AGS dev environment is so I decided a couple of weeks ago to stress test it and see how it worked. I was very impressed with what I was able to do with the engine and I look forward to developing my game in it over the next 6 or 7 months.

For the characters with a lot of animation I'm using 3ds Max to toon-render them and doing touch-up in Photoshop or After Effects later. I'll probably paint stationary characters and animate them in AE when I get to them.

The environments are done in Max rendered with Mental Ray using Final Gather, then painted over in PS. I may paint over photos for some of the future environments.

I know not everyone is going to be excited about another commercial title, but the expenses I have for software and hardware, not to mention the time this will take, make it so I have to charge for the final product.

I expect the hardware requirements to be somewhere around a 2.5 Ghz PC (and I hope to doÃ,  Mac and Linix ports if I can figure out how)

Thanks everyone! This seems like a great community and I'm glad to be a part of it.