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Now seems like as good a time as any to describe the game itself.

It's based on the TV series The Prisoner, made in Britain in 1967-68.
A British intelligence agent resigns from his post.  He's followed back to his London flat and is gassed out.  He awakes in a replica of his flat but discovers that he is actually not in London.  He is in the Village, an island community where people are stripped of their name and given numbers.  His captors want information,starting with why he resigned.  He doesn't know whether his captors are his former bosses or their enemies but either way he will not comply.  He must escape.  Other inhabitants of the Village may also be prisoners...but which ones?  The focus of the game will be to identify allies and enemies so you can make escape attempts while at the same time avoiding the brainwashing and other interrogation techniques of the warders.  

Would this game plot be of interest to gamers who are completely unfamiliar with the series?  Also my plan is to make the game episodic with self-contained adventures.  Would this be too frustrating for a player since escape attempts in all but the last episode will be destined for failure?


Here is another attempt at "roto-ing" a poser figure.  Does it still look too rendered?  It was done using the same technique as the background so I think it looks fairly compatable with the images.

Portmeiron, eh? This wouldn't happen to be a "The Prisoner" game, would it? Looking at the pics I would guess not (no boats in The Village), but I think the plot would be a great premise for a game.

It is indeed a Prisoner game (Don't tell whoever owns the rights).  Glad there's somebody who recognizes it.  The boat is the "Stoneboat"... the landlocked boat that some villagers play on sometimes.

I think his arms look weird b/c his hands are angled out rather than in.  I think reversing the angle would help.  But otherwise he looks really good and the walkcycle is very fluid.

My plan was to rotoscope poser images in the same style.

I tried making a nightime image of the boat scene.  The tide is in so the beach is gone.  I don't know what to do about the moon and I'm not sure about the water and level of darkness.




Here is my first test at rotoscoping a poser man.  This won't be my final ego, but was just a test to see if this was viable.  How does he look with the background? Are they compatable styles?  I think is scale isn't right for this image but I think you get the idea.

And another.

I think I'm starting to get a feel for this.  I'll go back and fix my first one now.



I think I'm starting to get a feel for this.  I'll go back and fix my first one now.

I feel the same way about the circular blotches.  I've experimented a little more since then and found better ways to achieve the shading I was going for.

On the 2nd pic, Ego can walk up to the edge of the retaining wall and go into the boat.

It's not supposed to be art deco...or at least that is to say I don't know what art deco really is.  If you mean the architecture, its because their done over photographs of Portmeiron which certainly has a unique style.

I see what you mean about the windows on the cafe in the background.  There is supposed to be an extension coming out so the windows are on a different face but its not clear in the image.  I'll have to fix that.

How about this one?

Thanks for the encouragement, fellas.  Here is an updated version.

This is my first attempt at a background.  I think its completely lacking of finesse when it comes to shading.  Could I get some criticism for how it could be improved? Thanks

I think that Ang Lee is from Thailand.

I think you could make the plane into the player character and just have the sky as a walkable area for the plane to walk(read: fly) over.  Maybe I'm completely out to lunch...but it was something I was planning myself as well.

I liked the magazine...very overdue idea.  My biggest suggestion would be to seek out additional contributers.  It would be nice to have more than one opinion presented.  

What I'd really be interested in is a really good template of a walk cycle.  I'd prefer to make the specific characters myself but just find animation somewhat difficult to achieve so I think generic male and female templates would be good for common animations.  I would then draw over the template on a separate layer and add some personality.