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Got a review up for the demo for The Shivah. Here

Nice

Thanks, I noticed ;-)

I'll try to link you as well.

Thanks Ben!

Please save in something like png format, and wrap your image url's in [ img ][ /img ] tags

I'm not trying to bump this, just to do so.  I just want to inform you of my first adventure game (and also ags) review, for Limey Lizard.

http://indieflux.com/2009/03/02/who-said-all-space-janitors-had-to-be-human/

I may post a link directly to the ags posts a few more times, and then won't anymore after that, because it's probably considered spam.

Hey, my name is Keith, and you all know me by Uhfgood, or at least some of you might.  I started a games review blog, and I'm intending to get a few indie adventures in there.  I don't know what one i'll do yet but I'll probably do an ags one for Monday.  
Here's the link - Indie Flux

I don't know if I'll do one a week or not, but I might.  I've decided to use Limey Lizard as my first adventure (and ags) game review.  On the whole I've decided not to review games that have explicit sex/nudity, violence or harsh language.  Not to say I won't review stuff with those in it, just on the whole I'm staying away from anything that would technically be considered "R" rated (or whatever the equivalent mature movie rating is in the UK)

Thanks,
Keith

Looks great.  Also looks like you have your own style, as to be not exactly like the image, or the other poster art.  Would look great in a poster for one of these fan games.

Keith

ps.  What's your technique, I have a graphics tablet but haven't really used it for painting.

Personally for an image of that size, I'd just give the suggestion of eyes and a mouth.  Make the eye area a darker shade of the face color, and same with the mouth.  Otherwise it just looks a bit bizarre.

I don't know anything about lighting, and the background looks pretty nice but I think it's a little too busy.

There seems to be a bit of a pattern emerging.  While a couple of you start with your story, alot of you start with your characters.  And in fact start visually with the characters.  Something I noticed while participating in nanowrimo last year.  Usually if you center your story around your characters it comes out better than if you decide on a plot or story structure first, and try to fit characters into it.

In any case this is how Enchanted Lands came about.  Well naturally I came up with the idea first about a real magic kingdom that had to resort to tourism to keep financially afloat.  But then I went in started coming up with characters I thought were funny.  Then I started their individual plot lines, and made them all cross together.  Then added their subplots, and went back and tried filling in a back story.  So my game is pretty character-centric.

So I guess the better idea for me would be to visually design the characters before proceeding.

ProgZMax - you said you write a short screenplay, do you intentionally leave holes for adding puzzles and things, or do you just write it out how the final story line would play out (ie, if you did everything correctly in the resulting game, it would more-or-less end up with what you had in the screenplay) ?

I'd still like more people to contribute.  Even if you are in the middle of making your first game, or are a professional (assuming pro's read in here), I'd very much like to hear how you work!

Thanks,
Keith

I was hoping more people would contribute to the thread.  I guess it's better to post something and not reply to it, so that people won't think you're then finished with hearing the discussion and thereby continue to post.  Anyhoo thanks to all that did post already, will keep this for future reference.

Why not a 'demake' of KQ7 ?  so it looks, feels, and sounds more like an older king's quest game (preferably with art like KQ6) ?

(Just a curiosity as to whether anyone has thought of this is all :-)

It's quite interesting that all your techniques are different.  It has given me some food for thought, and is making me think my idea is not that bad at all, since we all have our different ways of doing things.

Essentially I have two plot lines (plot and subplot) for about 13 characters (or thereabouts), all written in plot point format.  So now I guess what I should do is start thinking of the puzzles I should make to get from plot point A to plot point B.

By the way keep the posts coming, it's very interesting, and a great learning experience to see how everyone goes about their games.  And it doesn't matter if you're new to it, haven't finished a game, or have finished lots, it's all pretty valuable.

I'm also betting some of the more inexperienced members would really like to know this stuff (me included).

Thanks!

I'm just curious as to how you guys build your games.  Do you start with a story first, then build some puzzles/locations.  Do you start with just a setting, then build puzzles based on the setting, and then write a story around it?  When you write the story what form is it in? (ie Present tense, plot points, summary, etc).  Basically just curious about what process everyone goes through to put together their adventure games.

Currently I have a story (or stories as the case may be) in the works.  What I did was write out the specific plot points... (ie Iniciting incident, plot point 1, mid point, pp2, climax resolution), and built what would happen at those points.  I figured these would be in the form of cut scenes.  I intentionally left holes from one plot point to the next because I figured that's what the player will "play" to get to the next bit of story.  Next based on the story, I started working on locations, and puzzles to fill them in.  Does this sound like a valid way to go about it? 

Other options would be to write a virtual walkthrough, where essentially it's how the story would go, if you were playing it, and were successful (as if you were writing a walk through for a game that's already been made) in present tense...  Other would be similar to that, except in a narrative form, ie a story, novella or some such, and then build the game based off of it.  Another option could be to essentially build it in "choose your own adventure" form, and then based off of it, make the real adventure game.  (Note I'm not saying to build a choose your own adventure type game, where it plays animations based on what path you took... i'm just saying the initial story-writing process would be in this format, then of course you would build the game as normal, adding puzzles and things to conform to the multi-branching story you made.)

I'm considering rewriting my story stuff as a full story, with no blank spots... and then fashioning the game around it, instead of filling up the holes.

Your thoughts?

My hair is long enough and I have been parting it this way for 5 years and I never noticed this.

Must be brain problems on my behalf 


Better?

Ben, I didn't know you were a green-eyed female? (unless that picture is a man) ;-)


Edit by ProgZ: Please don't quote images.

I believe it has something to do with color temperature.  With yellow light things look a bit warmer (ie pushed towards reds, oranges and yellows)... with the absence of it things start to look a bit colder.  (like blues and greens and such).

I like the new shading, makes the walls look more dynamic. 

Also don't try to worry too much about having too much green.  You're making your character have more unique attributes.  Whereas in most games you might sketch out a biographical profile stating their favorite color is this, and favorite food is that, and don't really end up using it in the game, your choice of his color choices makes for a more grounded character.  The character likes green alot so he's going to be doing alot of green in the personal choices he makes.

Personally I don't find anything wrong in your backgrounds.  It's more about style and preference.  Some people may prefer the older style (with the single shade of green for the walls with no deliniation), some the new.  I personally prefer that latest version because it shows where one wall stops and another starts.  Also I like the simple uses of colors, you're not trying to do shades and shades of stuff, it works well with your art style.

As far as the tutorial goes, they say the best way to learn is by teaching.  So if you start a tutorial, you'll probably learn things along the way, and if there's anything amiss I'm sure the more experienced artists would point you in the right direction.

Monk - could you posssibly do a tutorial on how you did your backgrounds?

I hate to say it, but they pictures look more dirty than creepy.  Like the guy couldn't afford a decent hotel, and there's stains from who knows what on everything.