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Why set any arbirtrary criteria?  Why not just ask what people's favourite films of all time are?

Pestilence: Charade and Breakfast at Tiffany's are also in colour.

Okay I'm submitting an entry for the project leader position.  Over the past four months I've worked diligently on a single game without allowing myself to pursue other ideas that arise and this might be an opportunity to make a quick and dirty game out of one of those ideas without getting too distracted from my main project.

Brief Description:

The player character (all characters are as yet unnamed) is a university student in his last year of studies.  He is smart and likable and seems to have everything going for him and so his future looks wide open.  However his world is rocked when seemingly out of the blue his roommate/best friend commits suicide.  This friend also happens to be his identical twin brother. His other friends are merely there for the good times and are too shallow to help him with something as serious as this.  His ex-girlfriend would have been there for him except their 3+ year relationship ended recently. His parents and sister want to help him and each other by sharing their grief but he believes his status as the twin gives him some kind of proprietary right to grief that they could not possibly share.  His quest becomes to ascertain what motives drove his brother to suicide but as he delves into it he may learn that that is not the road to healing.

I'm not at all certain how gamers would receive such a game.  Would anyone want to play something serious and somber?  Would anyone want to join a team to make it?

My concept for the look of the game is to go for relatively realistic looking characters and backgrounds.  No cartoony characters or funky curved walls and skewed doors.  Stylization should come from how the backgrounds are lit.  The game will require <10 rooms and about 6-9 characters.  The game will be very conversation based but will include some additional puzzles.  I foresee the game providing about 30 to 60 minutes of play.

Well I gotta admit, some of my design philosophies are being influenced by this thread.    Initially my plan was to keep look interactions to a minimum.    The look interactions I had planned were merely showing a close-up of the object in question rather than giving a text box description.  I believed that if a description was neccessary than the problem lay in the graphics being inadequate.  As many have pointed out the descriptions of objects and hotspots can help establish the character.  Creating a well fleshed out character is certainly desirable but I'm torn on the method.  Are the text boxes his thoughts or is he talking to himself?  Or should the text boxes take an omniscient point of view and be a narrator stepping in?  None of these methods really appeal to me but I do want to create the immersive experience that players seek.  I think the problem may simply be that I haven't yet learned the language of games.  I try to apply film conventions to my game design and perhaps as a result I'm making a rather crappy game.  

Much to consider.

End of July's fine with me.

Darth, I think you have become the king of walk-cycles.

Well objects can be used to define walk behind areas as well.  Still I think it would be more efficient to break it down to multiple rooms.

Most games seem to use the interacting with hotspots as comic relief.  But if you're not making a comedy then it can upset the tone of the game to put in zany descriptions of hotspots.  

You have to draw your mask to the same dimensions as the room that is being masked.  The mask has to be in 256 colours using the locked portion of the game's default pallette.

I've been thinking about this subject a fair amount lately.    I think that if one's graphics are well drawn enough that hotspots are identifiable than having a look interaction is kind of redundant.  However will a player know to use the radio if he got no interaction when he looked at the radio?  

In a way I don't like it when all hotspots are identified by name when the cursor is over it, especially if only hotspots that play a role in solving the game are identified.  To me it makes it a little too obvious that something is important.  A player need not know why something is important but just goes into trial and error mode with his inventory.  

Yeah I like MS's Frankenstein a great deal.  Its not scary exactly but it does have a great atmosphere.  Branaugh's films always have a great sense of style to them.

So if my hotspots are large but don't have any cursor change identifying them it won't be the dreaded pixel hunt?

Pixel Hunting appears to be the most loathed element of some gameplay but I'm not precisely sure what it is and if I am properly avoiding it.  Is it simply when there is no cursor change to indicate a hotspot or is there more to it?

I'd give it a chance.  

If the kids are pretty young and have a well thought out costume I have no issues with giving them candy.  Its only when they're early teenagers who slap together some last minute half-assed attempt at a costume so they can go milk the neighbourhood one more year while causing petty mischief, that I have a problem.


To me the effort put into the costume is the payment for the candy.  I get to see kids dressed up in cool costumes.  They get candy.  Symbiotic really.  Although if I don't know what they're supposed to be even after they tell me I just feel old and out-of-touch.

Quote from History Channel Exhibits: The History of Halloween

"Halloween's origins date back to the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain (pronounced sow-in). The Celts, who lived 2,000 years ago in the area that is now Ireland, the United Kingdom, and northern France, celebrated their new year on November 1. This day marked the end of summer and the harvest and the beginning of the dark, cold winter, a time of year that was often associated with human death. Celts believed that on the night before the new year, the boundary between the worlds of the living and the dead became blurred. On the night of October 31, they celebrated Samhain, when it was believed that the ghosts of the dead returned to earth. In addition to causing trouble and damaging crops, Celts thought that the presence of the otherworldly spirits made it easier for the Druids, or Celtic priests, to make predictions about the future. For a people entirely dependent on the volatile natural world, these prophecies were an important source of comfort and direction during the long, dark winter.

To commemorate the event, Druids built huge sacred bonfires, where the people gathered to burn crops and animals as sacrifices to the Celtic deities. During the celebration, the Celts wore costumes, typically consisting of animal heads and skins, and attempted to tell each other's fortunes. When the celebration was over, they re-lit their hearth fires, which they had extinguished earlier that evening, from the sacred bonfire to help protect them during the coming winter.

By A.D. 43, Romans had conquered the majority of Celtic territory. In the course of the four hundred years that they ruled the Celtic lands, two festivals of Roman origin were combined with the traditional Celtic celebration of Samhain. The first was Feralia, a day in late October when the Romans traditionally commemorated the passing of the dead. The second was a day to honor Pomona, the Roman goddess of fruit and trees. The symbol of Pomona is the apple and the incorporation of this celebration into Samhain probably explains the tradition of "bobbing" for apples that is practiced today on Halloween.

By the 800s, the influence of Christianity had spread into Celtic lands. In the seventh century, Pope Boniface IV designated November 1 All Saints' Day, a time to honor saints and martyrs. It is widely believed today that the pope was attempting to replace the Celtic festival of the dead with a related, but church-sanctioned holiday. The celebration was also called All-hallows or All-hallowmas (from Middle English Alholowmesse meaning All Saints' Day) and the night before it, the night of Samhain, began to be called All-hallows Eve and, eventually, Halloween. Even later, in A.D. 1000, the church would make November 2 All Souls' Day, a day to honor the dead. It was celebrated similarly to Samhain, with big bonfires, parades, and dressing up in costumes as saints, angels, and devils. Together, the three celebrations, the eve of All Saints', All Saints', and All Souls', were called Hallowmas.



The American tradition of "trick-or-treating" probably dates back to the early All Souls' Day parades in England. During the festivities, poor citizens would beg for food and families would give them pastries called "soul cakes" in return for their promise to pray for the family's dead relatives. The distribution of soul cakes was encouraged by the church as a way to replace the ancient practice of leaving food and wine for roaming spirits. The practice, which was referred to as "going a-souling" was eventually taken up by children who would visit the houses in their neighborhood and be given ale, food, and money.

The tradition of dressing in costume for Halloween has both European and Celtic roots. Hundreds of years ago, winter was an uncertain and frightening time. Food supplies often ran low and, for the many people afraid of the dark, the short days of winter were full of constant worry. On Halloween, when it was believed that ghosts came back to the earthly world, people thought that they would encounter ghosts if they left their homes. To avoid being recognized by these ghosts, people would wear masks when they left their homes after dark so that the ghosts would mistake them for fellow spirits. On Halloween, to keep ghosts away from their houses, people would place bowls of food outside their homes to appease the ghosts and prevent them from attempting to enter.



As European immigrants came to America, they brought their varied Halloween customs with them. Because of the rigid Protestant belief systems that characterized early New England, celebration of Halloween in colonial times was extremely limited there. It was much more common in Maryland and the southern colonies. As the beliefs and customs of different European ethnic groups, as well as the American Indians, meshed, a distinctly American version of Halloween began to emerge. The first celebrations included "play parties," public events held to celebrate the harvest, where neighbors would share stories of the dead, tell each other's fortunes, dance, and sing. Colonial Halloween festivities also featured the telling of ghost stories and mischief-making of all kinds. By the middle of the nineteenth century, annual autumn festivities were common, but Halloween was not yet celebrated everywhere in the country.

In the second half of the nineteenth century, America was flooded with new immigrants. These new immigrants, especially the millions of Irish fleeing Ireland's potato famine of 1846, helped to popularize the celebration of Halloween nationally. Taking from Irish and English traditions, Americans began to dress up in costumes and go house to house asking for food or money, a practice that eventually became today's "trick-or-treat" tradition. Young women believed that, on Halloween, they could divine the name or appearance of their future husband by doing tricks with yarn, apple parings, or mirrors.

In the late 1800s, there was a move in America to mold Halloween into a holiday more about community and neighborly get-togethers, than about ghosts, pranks, and witchcraft. At the turn of the century, Halloween parties for both children and adults became the most common way to celebrate the day. Parties focused on games, foods of the season, and festive costumes. Parents were encouraged by newspapers and community leaders to take anything "frightening" or "grotesque" out of Halloween celebrations. Because of their efforts, Halloween lost most of its superstitious and religious overtones by the beginning of the twentieth century.

By the 1920s and 1930s, Halloween had become a secular, but community-centered holiday, with parades and town-wide parties as the featured entertainment. Despite the best efforts of many schools and communities, vandalism began to plague Halloween celebrations in many communities during this time. By the 1950s, town leaders had successfully limited vandalism and Halloween had evolved into a holiday directed mainly at the young. Due to the high numbers of young children during the fifties baby boom, parties moved from town civic centers into the classroom or home, where they could be more easily accommodated. Between 1920 and 1950, the centuries-old practice of trick-or-treating was also revived. Trick-or-treating was a relatively inexpensive way for an entire community to share the Halloween celebration. In theory, families could also prevent tricks being played on them by providing the neighborhood children with small treats. A new American tradition was born, and it has continued to grow. Today, Americans spend an estimated $6.9 billion annually on Halloween, making it the country's second largest commercial holiday. "

AAh cmon, you are all bouding christianity to religion, but it hasn't got aything to do with religion.

Huh?

Well I just finished watching Ninth Gate.  It fit my criteria for a horror film although it was more of the quiet forboding kind than the things-jumps-out-and-get-ya type.  Pretty watchable.  Except for all the smoking.  A little hard to believe when the people are dealing with priceless antiques.

I haven't seen either Texas Chainsaw Masacre film but the remake looks pretty intense.  I don't dismiss  good slasher picks; I just don't classify them as horror.

I didn't think Signs was any good in any genre.  It was almost unwatchable but I slogged through it.  

Yeah you could be on to something, Pestilence.  Maybe Samhain is what she was talking about.  I think a few Christian holidays coincide with other religious holidays to steal their part of the calendar.

  I rented a couple horror movies tonight, The Ninth Gate,  and The Haunting (was this movie remade I rented the Robert Wise version).  I haven't seen either before but The Haunting is supposed to be a classic.  I have low expectations for the Ninth Gate but it is directed by Roman Polanski.  Polanski made the only film that ever really scared me, Rosemary's Baby.

Anyway thought I'd start a threat to ask what other peoples favourite horror films were.  Please don't say Psycho or Silence of the Lambs because true horror films, I believe, have a supernatural element to them.

Some of my favourites are: The Exorcist, Angel Heart, An American Werewolf in London, Don't Look Now and Rosemary's Baby.