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Ok, my paintover of the front view:



(19 colors, vs. 20 colors original.

- used a more neutral background (this is my favourite, a greenish orange with only a little saturation; almost like a drawing paper) - don't underestimate this, it's important for being able to pick the right colours, do the outline correctly, and it will prevent your eyes from becoming sore).
- more contrasting values to make shading stand out more
- even though pants are "black", used 2 colors to shade them
- made his neck a little shorter, and his shoulders and hips wider
- added some muscles
- made him look less symetrical
- reshaded him
- bigger hands
- made him look less cleanly shaven
- redid the face's outline
- gave him a sword

[The backgrounds]

Hi Grundislav!

finished BJ5 and enjoyed it very much! The puzzles were logical, except for

Spoiler

the part where the priest needs to return

[close]

and pretty straightforward.

The music was very good, up to the BJ series standard (which is high!). My favourite piece is still the Dunesberg theme from BJ2, that one's just amazing, I love it!! - it could have been the main theme of a blockbuster western, that's for sure!

To be honest, the BJ series' graphics was never really my cup of tea, but it never ruined my gameplay, either. To be specific:

The backgrounds - all the way through the BJ series, the backgrounds is what I don't like very much - because of the bluriness and because of the "someone-scribbled-something-over-a-photo" look. I loved what Buloght did with the BJ1 backgrounds in his remake...

The portraits - even though some looked a bit too "shiny" (like polished statues, rather than having a sking), especially Simon, I still think you did a very good job.

Character sprites - well I never did like the characters without faces and I think their shading is rather weird too. In this game what bothered me the most was Alice's sprite (could use some rework) and the TV show moderator's sprite (blurry). Also sometimes Ben's arms would look too long and made of rubber (no bones), like in the flight sequence.

That said, the game has great atmosphere, a catching story, and is certainly among the best in the BJ series. Playing it was a great pleasure for us, BJ fans!

Cheers!

EDIT: The police inspector's full name - Hamato Yoshi - made me laugh out loud!Ã,  Did you name him after Splinter from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles intentionally?

You can also find them on Amazon - but Amazon only send games to US adresses. (I don't really understand why). But this can be possibly resolved in one of these ways:

1. Ask a friend (AGSer?) in the US to help you, let Amazon send the games to his address and he will send the games to you by post. (That's what I did, and it worked perfectly!)

2. These games are mostly from Amazon marketplace - Amazon is just the mediator of other sellers. Perhaps the individual seller will be willing to send the game abroad.

Good luck!

Edit: I did a much more stupid thing, BTW. I lent a book (a rather good and expensive one) to a classmate at the university. I forgot about it and he wasn't my classmate from the next semester on anymore. I forgot his name, so I don't suppose I will ever see the book again. Talk about being stupid.

Nice character! The problem is he doesn't look like a hunter - he looks like a soldier.

1. He's got a bayonet fixed on his rifle - bayonet is a close combat weapon. Only soldiers use this.

2. His hair looks a bit like a beret.

[1. Darkness & maps]

I'm looking forward to playing this game, looks great!

I have some comments on the rolling demo (a little late, I admit, but relevant to the upcoming game too, IMO):

1. Darkness & maps
Most of the time the screen is actually black due to the huge number of fade-through-blacks. When it' not black, there's a map. The actual scenes only flash for a very brief time, on the other hand. This looks quite disturbing. You should have used direct cut where possible and maybe the scenes should have been just a tiny bit longer.

2. Timing
Overall there is a little problem with timing: The pauses between the commentary phrases are too long and unnatural, and the scenes are too short and the map/titles inbetween take too long.

3. The commentary
The spoken commentary just made me burst out laughing.... while I find commentaries like this rather funny in general, this was even worse because of the apparent lack of background music in the beginning. (As for the voice acting, you can tell it's amateur, but rather good.)

Map again
Just an idea: The map is actually a little problematic even in the original games... It's a bit plain. In the movies the map is crossfaded with a sequence of the voyage (plane flying, etc.) This of course can't be used in a 256-color mode (or style). But it would be possible to mix the map with the travel sequence by other means than transparency: You could dedicate part of the screen to the map and part of it to the travel sequence.... That would actually make it closer to the movie.

Hi,

I think he looks fantastic! His face really looks like a mercenary's - it's almost monkey-like, I love it.Ã, 

I see only a few minor problems:
- the few missing pixels of the arms' outlines (I don't even mind the head's not outlined, that seems ok)
- his pants look a little baggy
- the folds of his shirt around his waits look a little strange

Also you might want to add some little (sci-fi-like) detail(s), perhaps a utility belt.

Anyway awesome work, you could put him into a wonderful game right away!!

Just for the record, real spacesuits are white (to reflect infrared rays). Those orange suits are STS (Space Shuttle) pressure suits, used for launch and reentry. Their purpose is to protect the astronauts should cabin pressure be unstable. But they can't be used outside the ship. (If you've ever seen an orange space suit, it was surely in a VERY bad pseudo-sci-fi movie).

Having said that, you have full right to make your spacesuit any color you like Ã, 

... I'll be pushing this too far I guess, but: if he's in zero-g, then the sparks should not fall downwards...

You use too much grays & blacks. Don't know whether you're going for the movie look, but nontheless I'd suggest googling some images for reference.

For instance, Dumbledore's typical robe has a purple tone, it's not grey:


(from http://www.mugglenet.com/

Howarts school uniforms (in the movies) have parts in the house colours, and other colour parts. (In the books the uniforms supposedly consist only of a black robe, so IMO they would need to wear some clothes under that (presumably not black)).

You should try avoiding 100% desaturated colors altogether, always use a color tint. It will look much better, trust me.

I think that is because HOTU checks whether the Referer field of the HTTP request is http://www.the-underdogs.net/ ... or something. You would need to use a modified web client, or a (modified?) anonymizer, GET it manually using a telnet client, etc. to work around the problem.

The background looks awesome!

I by no means know exactly how British courtyards look, but I just thought...

- the fence should be based on a small wall (perhaps just a few centimeters high)
- there is nothing behind the right fence which defies it's purpase... perhaps some grass?

I hope you don't mind, but I put that picture up on my website.Ã, 

Sure I don't mind, that would be an honour!Ã,  ToaK is a fantastic game, BTW!!!

It seems the domain is still unavailable. Use http://209.120.136.195/ instead.

yes, 2D rulesÃ, 

The Walters twins!



Oh my, such crap compared to all the other awesome etries!Ã,  :o

It could be just me, but I like LucasArts-style or Cocktel Vision-style speech much better.

Every time I see a Sierra-style dialogue, it just like if someone slapped me in the face and said: "It's not real, it's just a story/book".

(This applies especially to seeing a message box saying what I did "You took the bread, but didn't touch the mouldy cheese." instead of seeing the character actually doing it, and possibly commenting on it...)

Hi there, excellent idea for a game! I love that book too.

Yes Farlander this game will be heavily "inspired" by MI.

Please don't inspire yourself more that you would inspire yourself from Tootsie when filming Jaws... I mean it's a completely different type of story - MI is a relaxing parody, while Treasure Island is a chilling/thrilling pirate adventure.

Trying to copy the graphic style, and worst of all, style of humor, would be a BIG mistake. Throw away MI and rather get a Treasure Island book and movie for a reference.

Cheers

The main character and the ship's hold are beautifully drawn. Also there's some really nice music. This could be made into a very good game.

btw: If you try to talk to the hole in the ship side, the game crashesÃ, 

I am stuck

Spoiler

in the basement, I oiled the box, have a plank, board, coal and flint. Can't break off the wall.

[close]

not sure what you mean about the perspective thing tho. maybe you could do me a quick paint-over?

Here you go:


Since I was changing the perspective, I completely redrew it. As for the perspective, I decreased the ground area and made the vertical lines parallel.

I think your version looks more interesting, though....

[Perspective]

It looks much better than the previous one, good job!

Some points:

Perspective
Way off. You should use a single vanishing point for one line direction: e.g. the vertical edges of the house and and of the crates, the wharf is of too, should be like a / not like a \. Also you forgot to give the wharf some thickness.

Camera/Composition
The ground are still seems too large, as if the camera was looking downwards (but vertical lines contradict it). The house is in a very strange position too close to the picture edge. I'd suggest putting it vertically into the middle and horizontally just a bit farther from the side.

The house and the ground cover the majority of the pictures area and so you must cover them with lots of detail. You did a great job with the wood texture, but still a few details (old poster, hanging rope, etc.) would be nice. The ground is all one-colour...

The horizon
The fact that it sit's flat a the horizon makes the city look like being cut from a cardboard paper. You need to use perspective at that too.. The closer parts should descend below the horizon line.

Still a very nice job, I myself wouldn't dare go for such a high resolution, it involves too much detail.

Oh and the crates are really niceÃ,