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I already got some grey hairs until I managed to gather some alf-hearted approaches of ideas, but
even if I would be able to convert one idea into an acceptable entry ...
I can't get even close to this quality.

Well, now. That is not an acceptable excuse.
I would strongly encourage you to send something.

I, myself think about it not in terms of skills or who's bettter,
I guess it's more about challenging myself, gaining experience
or trying to solve kind of "graphical" puzzle. I would probably never
come up with my entry on my own, it's the suprising shapes
and themes that "made me do it" And I'm pretty sure that
every pixel counts somewhere later, so any ideas and solutions
you'll come up with may be useful to you in some way while doing
your own projects.

I saw past colouring competitions and every single entry made me thinking
"Whoaaa, nice. How come I didn't saw that?"

So please, open that Photoshop/GIMP/another-program and draw.

Original:


Zoom:


I'm not sure if that's entertainment, but I would pay
to see people being transform into high energy particles.

[Awesome]

Awesome [aw-suh m] - causing or inducing awe;
inspiring an overwhelming feeling of reverence,
admiration, or fear.

There's that.

Beautiful, original and kind of haunting.
Loved everything, from emotional story,
minimal yet rich, artful graphics to music and
sound design.

Only my natural envy is preventing me from
declaring you a Genius. Well done, sir.



And I'm quite sure I'm not the only one who will
ask you: please, do another one!

> though I wonder if he was seeing the images cut off

Yikes! You're absolutly right, I didn't saw whole image.
My apologies. In that case, please consider my earlier
comment as ramblings of a lunatic old man who didn't
drank his morning coffe.

Good Evening

Surely I'm not that experienced in the process of game-making
(three titles forever stuck at "almost finished" stage,
that's also the reason I'm now doing AGS game by myself
so it could actually come out... sorry, that's another story)
but I've done my share of concept art and storyboarding
so let me share some opinions.

First of all, good job at mastering Sketchup (that alone
is a impressive thing for me, cause this skill is
unfortunatly too occult for me to acquire). I can see
and honour the time and effort You put in those frames.

That being said...

In my humble opinion these frames lack something of a soul.
I understand that those are sketch-renders without
paint-over, yet there is something in composition and framing
that's too generic. Let's take picture with a ship for example.
Most of that picture is actually sea and sand, "crushing"
(composition-wise) the ship and the port area which makes
that picture not that interesting. It looks like You have
modeled Your scenery and THEN started looking for a frame.

Start with a sketch. On paper. Think about "what's that
frame about". Does it tells a story? What kind of feeling
or atmosphere you want to express. Ask yourself
"why I'm showing it like that".

"Cause it looks good/nice/awesome" is not really an answer.
"Cause I want to show the ship, sea and port area" is
actually not an answer either. You can show it all in
a million ways, so why this one?

Personally I think this may be a 3D software thing,
since it doesn't put any restrictions/boundries on
the creator. Just look at cinematic difference of
sci-fi movies from 80's (or even earlier) and computer
made sci-fi movies today with obligatory fly over futuristic
city, something huge hovering above it, people staring in the sky,
all of the contemporary movies suffer from no restrictions,
and in a weird way since they can do eveything in a computer
they all end up looking the same (with some notable exceptions).

Sketch on paper gives you that boundries back.

Ahhh... sorry, I've got lost in my own thoughts.
Back to the composition.

Adventure games are (mostly) visual medium, so steal and learn
from other visual mediums, cinema, comicbooks, paintings.
And most important, study Stanley Kubrick. Even if you're
not a fan of symmetry, there's a lot everyone can larn
from his composition, cause everything matters. Things
relate to each other and you can tell that using composition.

Make multiple frames of the same picture. See how it
works with horizon high and low, maybe open space
and sky will help to tell "this is seaport, smell it".
Try puting ship in front of the sea, if it's a shipwreck
tell us in that frame "it's the cruel sea that made that wreck".
Or maybe it's a new ship, then if you will have sea and sky
as a background it will show some of "adventures that
wait for that ship". Because it's not only the objects
that tell the story, it's also their relations to each other
and their composition.

And don't fill the wireframe shapes. Make them very light,
almost transparent and paint all over them. They are
here only for the refference, but it's You who actually paints.

If my words came harsh I'm sorry. Please consider this
as a friendly and sincere discussion and not hating/trolling.

Pax

1. I<3Pindorama

Looking at the clean form and outline I couldn't imagine
such a funny, suprising image with a great and moving story.
Awesomness.

2. Mandle

I can't decide if I want to park my
Intergallactic Ship MKIII on this carrier
or just nuke it and collect score bonus.

3. AprilSkies

While thinking about my Intergallactic Ship MKIII
in my mind, I'm picturing exactly this thing. Well done.

I guess this is some kind of teleportation device
or maybe trans-dimensional portal. Hard to tell...
it's not made by humans.

Thank you all kindly.

> Is the Sierra-style interface a final decision?

Not even game title is final at this stage.
I try to make hotspot shapes a little larger
so it's easier to click/interact with objects.
It's all rather spontaneous thing, quite unexpected
for me because I'm doing graphic design mostly, never done
any programming but I'm trying my best to learn
and maybe understand it one day.

This is all basicly re-themed default GUI and
I'm kinda inventing/changing things "in the moment".

So far it's all going well, thanks to forum and
video tutorials (many people here have been great
help for me and inspiration to do this and try
to conquer the AGS engine).

> Lovecraft

Indeed, HPL is a major influence on me so you
can expect some kind of mythos in game.
As you can see:



Which is somehow ironic, now that I think of it,
cause I got hooked on HPL eaons ago by
accident, reading walkthrough in a computer
magazine to a Shadow Of The Comet game
(all walkthrough writen in a form of journal/HPL story).

Ah, one more thing.
The game music & sounds I'm expecting soon
will be recorded by my very dear friend from
Ghosts Of Breslau (also HPL freak):
http://ghostsofbreslau.bandcamp.com/album/drowned-city-ep

Pax

Good Evening, fellow Adventurers.

May I present you:

The Case Of Randolph Carter
(still working title)

Short story about dead bodies, stars,
myths and horrors set in deep, deep woods
of New England.

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Gameplay screens:










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Artwork:


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Journal #1

The Case of R.C. tells a story about monolithic ruins and unimaginable void
but it's also a story about the stories.

Here are the Books that inspired the game, some of them are featured in game.
After all, Knowledge is The Key.



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Progress:
Graphics: 50%
Scripting: 40%
Music&Sound: 0% (but it's coming)

Expected release: 2015,  at noon on the sumer solstice