Messages

  Cool!  That was fun.  Give me a few days to mull over an idea and I'll post up a new competition.

Oliwerko

Yea, the current placeholder "staple/generic zombie" is from a Might and Magic game.

I'm lucky Pinback is jumping onboard, and very eager to see what apocalyptic goodness he cooks up.  I know he's busy with his own game, so I'm especially grateful he's making the time to pitch in.  I may also need a gameplay beta tester in a few months.

  Quite a technical achievement considering the engine wasn't designed for strategy games.  The bits I've played were great...Good fun!

[GAME IS RELEASED]

>>> GAME IS RELEASED <<<
(click link to view Completed Thread/Download Game)

I've been working a small quirky one-room shooter as a first game.  The backstory is usual cookie-cutter stuff, but I think the gameplay will eventually be pretty cool once it gets ironed out.  The basic idea is after a zombie apocalypse, scientists created two prototype super-human zombie-killers who are supposed to be immune.  The first one was bitten by a zombie, and turns out wasn't immune after all...He will be your archenemy.  The main character is the second Prototype.  Using a large bolt action cannon, hand cannon, and nodachi samurai sword the Prototype will fend off the hordes.  He also has a caltrop trap and a zombie-attracting chicken in his arsenal.  Periodically, a sarcastic, inept scientist will come out of his bunker and berate the Prototype or possibly show off one of his weird contraptions/creations.

  I'm slowly tweaking the gameplay, which I want to be a bit strategic and a bit twitch...but I really need a graphic artist to help with the monster sprites, as I need to replace a handful of the ones I'm currently using as placeholders.  Each one has a 8-frame walk/attack, 8-frame run/attack, and 4-frame death animation.  Some have a 2-frame recoil animation after getting shot or hit by the sword.

Main Menu Scoreboard


Old Screenshot (pre-Pinback)


Story: 100% (Just there to support gameplay)
Sound/Music: 100% (Max McCracken already did the music)
Graphics: 60% (Mainly need to replace monsters, perhaps small tweaks to room)
Gameplay: 70% (Base is done, but many "battle" tweaks needed)

Here's an early beta version in case anyone is curious:
http://shutupload.com/dl/0edccef5ed0d/

  The beta is just the base of the game only, as the gameplay is still a ways off and other things don't work properly like the chicken (aim the reticle and press SHIFT key).  The zombies also have a bad habit of getting stuck on each other.  In this version the only way to die is to fall off the cliff.

  The funky music puts me in pimp mode, and not just in-game.  Fun stuff!

  For non-fiction serial killers, after the previously mentioned H. H. Holmes,  the next most interesting could be Jack Unterweger.  Unterweger is an Austrian who murdered a bunch of prostitutes in the 70s, was jailed, and then was out in 1990 after he wrote a bestselling book and was touted (mainly by himself and bunch of saps who campaigned for his release) as a model of Austrian prison rehabilitation.  In the early 90s, he became a minor celebrity as a journalist and talk show host...while returning to his former hobby of murdering prostitutes.  He was caught in 1994 for murders both in the U.S. and Europe, and then hung himself in prison.

  John Malkovich recently played the guy in an opera.

  The Doctor lied...If he would have just been honest, I wouldn't have purchased cleaning products from grocery stores in various towns, 2 MCU-2/P gas masks from a military surplus outlet, and an old .45 handgun with a flashlight attachment from a shady guy - who advised that I should scratch off the serial number.

  Why lead a patient to believe they have a chance?  I ponder this as I make the long drive to his house in a rattle-trap beater that I bought for 400 bucks at a junk-yard.  Judging by the giant rusting beetle on the roof, I safely guess that the car once belonged to a pest exterminator company.  Nazareth's "Hair of the Dog" playing on the radio further adds to the irony, which results in my first fit of chuckles since she died.

  The cruelest thing was giving her false hope.  I mull this over as I pull off the road near his house.  Revenge can be even more cruel, especially if his wife and kid aren't visiting relatives as planned.  My world is no longer black and white.  She was the best thing that ever happened to me; only my love was truly "innocent".

  Whatever happened to the Hippocratic oath?  This question lingers in my head as I notice that his place is unimpressive and rather small for a big-shot doctor.  The yard, while comfortably large, is in bad condition and needs landscaping.  I had studied photos of the house and surrounding area, but it didn't prepare me for how underwhelming it is in person.

  The Doctor enjoys experimenting in the name of science, well I'll give him an experiment in the name of vengeance.  This bad tagline from a straight-to-video action movie runs through my head as I crawl in the foyer window and stealthily make my way to the master bedroom, which as research indicates, has only one exit.

  "Treatment" and "trial" are two very different ideas with different objectives.  I contemplate this while the Doctor sleeps peacefully, and scan his room for any potential weapons, unplug the landline phone, and take his cell phone from the nightstand.  I carefully don the gas mask, and quickly dump the contents of the ammonia and bleach bottles all over the bedroom floor.  I walk over to the door to obstruct it, and wait for his rude awakening with the .45 at the ready.

  The Doctor shoots up coughing phlegm.  "Why did you give her a placebo?" is the first question out of my mouth in attempts to get to the point.  The doctor, between gags and glances at my flashlight, replies, "You?!  What...Why?  She agreed to take part in the Morbi-Rid clinical trial...I'm sorry for the outcome...COUGH...I'm sure she knew...COUGH...associated risks."

  "An agnozing death was the "outcome" you liar!  You billed Morbi-Rid as a miracle "treatment" to her rather than a "trial".  And not coincidentally, you owned a large amount of stock in the pharmaceutical company that produced it.  You needed unwitting lab rats to get your drug government approved.  Basically, you made the love of my life a guinea pig!"

  While gasping for air and tearing at his eyes, the Doctor manages, "Yes, well it was a...COUGH...blind trial with a control group.  What did you expect me to...COUGH COUGH...tell her?"

  "The truth!  She went to you for medical help, and not to be the control group of an experiment!  Morbi-Rid works, but you didn't even give it to her!  Tell me how you got her to sign the release and admit that you gave her a placebo!  In return, you will get this brand new gas mask."  I produced the spare gas mask.

  The air is thick with deadly chlorine gas from the bleach and ammonia mixture.  The Doctor blindly stumbles toward me with both arms flailing in a last ditch effort to make an escape, or perhaps in the hopes he can somehow get ahold of the spare mask.  He is sent sprawling with a front kick to the chest, and now my gun is trained on him center-mass.

  Starting to foam at the mouth, the Doctor pleads, "Ok!  Ok...We needed participants for the Morbi-Rid study...COUGH...COUGH...UGH...and no one with your wife's disease would knowingly, or willingly, be a part of the control group and, well, take a COUGH...placebo.  My God man...I can't see or even breathe!  Give me the mask!"

  The Doctor vomits, and with pleading, red eyes pathetically looks up at me.  I sigh and ask, "And the paperwork she signed?"

  While coughing spittle and convulsing, the Doctor wheezes, "She signed without reading...COUGH...UGH...it stated she agreed to...COUGH...an experiment...ok, yes, we should have been more up front...COUGH...subjects."

  The Doctor's eyes are squinted shut, and bile streams out of his nose.  Somehow amidst the projectile frothing he begs, "Hurry...COUGH...going blind and...respiratory system is undergoing class II hemorrhaging."  I see why this nasty concoction was once used in warfare.

  I continue to block the doorway, and toss him the spare gas mask.  The Doctor quickly straps it on and protests, "How could you?!  I have a family and...COUGH COUGH...Hey!   There is no filter in this gas mask!!"

  I relay the bad news to him through a maniacal grin: "Yea, it's a placebo."

The original "Alone in the Dark" is worth a look.

  I think its a good idea to open-source the Editor if the alternative is no more AGS updates.  Still, you should keep your hands directly in the mix somehow...perhaps at least by reviewing the user-made plugins to determine which get your stamp of approval and maybe in the process dole out some advice.

  Cool contest and awesome submissions!  I think Greenboy's Frankenstein was my favorite monster character, and I love the idea of the "hero" yelling at the heroine for crying in Eggie's entry.

...so 1/3 beats 3/3 for now

I'm not sure if this is more confusing than hilarious, but I love it all the same.

Oddysseus

[Come and See]

Some great, lesser known flicks that I love...

Come and See - the best war movie I've ever seen
Ran - amazing epic based on King Lear
The Killers - Lee F'n Marvin

  A good friend of mine worked as a "mainstream" developer for a number of years, mainly as a learning experience, before he started on side projects with the goal of striking out on his own.  Even working as a software tester can be good experience if you can't get in the door as a programmer or graphic artist.

  Those screenshots are stunning.  I can't wait for this one.  8)

  I'm kind of pragmatic about it, I've always been for whatever the top brass in U.S. military think makes them most effective - moreso than what makes the military more gay friendly or unfriendly.  And since the top guys in the military asked Congress to repeal it earlier this year, I'm for repealing it.  It should ONLY be up to the armed forces, as they are the ones who risk their lives and really put their butts on the line.  I don't think this is an issue where politics and/or religion on either side matters.

 
  Early 30s is too young for a heart attack...Sorry to hear it.

  I travel a good bit throughout Asia and have seen some pretty rough things, but only once did I see someone go right in front of me.  About 15 years ago I was working out in a gym and an older guy who appeared to be in his 80s was working out on a Nautilius machine (some kind of upper body movement, don't remember which) maybe 20 feet away from me.  Out of nowhere he slumps over, and then the gym staff were all over him.  Paramedics were there pretty quickly and he was taken out...Sadly I later heard he didn't make it.  What made it especially heartbreaking was his son being there and, understandably, freaking out the whole time.  Pretty much everyone in the gym stopped working out, and moped around for a while afterwards.

[#1 GreenBoy]

#1 GreenBoy
I love how the guy in the background is cheering on the other two hi-fiving.

#2 Mad
I can hear the hydraulics, mechanized noises, and Mr. T by just glancing at that.

#3 ProgZmax


  Pound-per-pixel, this might be the best graphic contest I've seen on here.  Everything looks awesome.

Oliwerko