Messages

Ddq: I have located and stomped out the bug. New zip will be online within a couple of minutes. Big thanks for noticing this!

Wizard: Yes, two spritesets solves the problem when they work separately, but there's no way to fade between them. Simply switching between spritesets between rooms, I do all the time. The plane scene however uses animation that I only had in the low res version though, thus the characters look extra broken in that very scene. A part from that one I have given Bwana unique sprites every time we zoom on him. If I remade the whole game from scratch I would definately have done him more hires from the start. Good lessons for the coming chapter!

GarageGothic: This whole "scaling characters or no scaling characters" really is an interesting discussion and also an interesting choice one does when starting an adventure game project. I could ramble about my personal opinions regarding the pros and cons forever.... I personally have always preferred lucasarts approach, where characters scale like crazy, this makes them pixly but on the other hand it opens up for some amazing room design... definitely worth the penalty of pixly characters. You will notice however that whenever guybrush gets zoomed in in mi1+2 theres always a completely different sprite showing him, and the standard sprite never really gets very big. Guybrush never dares to wander close to the camera. Skillful room design, that's what that is.

Khris: hehe I'm starting to get the feeling this font thing will haunt me. I've had several similar comments so far. I guess this ags crowd is pretty much fed up with that font by now... This too, I will keep in mind for the next chapter.

Thank you all for the kind words! It happies (svengelska rocks) me knowing that you guys are having a good time playing it!
Regarding sprite scaling: I agree. Perhaps next chapter goes higher res. We'll see! I am having a hard time making up my mind on that issue actually.. So many pros and cons.

ddq: thanks for the feedback and bug report!

It certainly isn't supposed to end without having fixed all the quests. Must look into this!
What order did you do things in?`roughly? I'd love to be able to reproduce this.
I don't doubt for a second that there are loads of small similar bugs a lurkin'. Please don't hesitate to inform me of them!

I've known all along that I'd have to make an update some time after the release, it is only to expect.

thanks!

That's right! Chapter 1 is finished! I have been working on and off on this game (and its following chapters) for over 5 years. Man does it feel strange to post this or what?!.... I didn't realize I'd one day actually have to release this and stop picking at it. Wow. What an odd feeling. My brain is tingling. I was hoping to feel a great calm and sort of bathe in an all round sense of closure upon release... instead I get this foreboding feeling that this project has barely started. What a wonderful thought!

A big thanks goes out to all you testers out there. You have done an amazing job hunting down issues!

Here are some screens for those of you who missed the production thread:

The Journey Down is a classical point and click adventure game, full to the brim with puzzles, conspiracies, mystery and adventure!

In chapter 1 "Over the Edge" we follow Bwana and his trusted sidekick Kito, as they struggle to make ends meet at their waterfront gas station in an off-beat place called Kingsport bay. When all hope seems lost and the power company is on their case with a mean threat, something promising appears. A woman. A woman with cash. What strings does she come attached with? What secrets are hiding underneath her fair surface? Find out, in chapter one of The Journey Down!

-

Please drop me a line if you do play through the game and tell me what you liked and what you didn't like. Honesty sucks, but I need it. I'm about to get my hands dirty with chapter two and the more feedback I get this time around, the better chapter two will be.

Also obviously if you find any bugs or odd flaws in chapter 1, please don't hesitate to send 'em my way. I will most likely be updating the exe some time soon with fixes to the issues that arise now that more people start playing the game.

Thanks for playing! I've had a great time making it, I hope you will enjoy it as well.

Here follows a collection of links related to the game:
Jayisgames feature.
Rock, Paper, Shotgun feature.
Game, set watch feature.
Interview on Zombie Apocalypse
INDIE GAMES Freeware Game Pick
PC GAMER Feature
IGC Feature
GAMASUTRA Best of indie games
Review on HardyDev
Review on the Slow down
Interview on the Slow down
Review on CaptainD's PC Gaming Blog
Official GAME JOLT profile

My own article on HardyDev
Sketches and Deleted scenes

In a mad stunt of heroism I have now added the finished game to the AGS library.

Please enjoy!

And for the love of Thor, please let me know what you think.

Nice music!

I'm lookin' forward to this one. I liked 1st drop a lot -  though I thought it was hella difficult I must admit.

Stupot: the four years have also included loads and loads of work on the remaining three chapters. They are extremely far from finished, but well fleshed out story and art wise. I haven't started any of the scripting and animation of those chapters though and in my experience, thats what takes time. Primarily the animation. So, no, it wont take 4 years per chapter but it's certainly not going to go fast, I can tell you that much. A rough estimate is that you can expect chapter 2 one year after the chapter 1 release. But who knows:)

GarageGothic: I know what you mean regarding shying away from default stuff. I do this too. Perhaps if I find the time I'll look into font alternatives. Regarding the coloring technique: I usually start out in monochrome and then add color by selections, but it is nearly as common that I simply paint directly with color. The first method is very nice to use when the backdrop has simple harsh lightsources with obvious gradients. When I start going outside and you want a nice play of shadows on the ground and lots of happy colors everywhere, I simply paint with color. Usually everything is a combination of both methods. I could make another rundown some other time with more details regarding the techniques.

Sughly: Chapter two will have a lot more of a noir mood to it. I'm not going all out monochrome though. I find that restriction incredibly effective in many ways but the Journey Down is a colorful world and I want to keep it that way, even the noir-ish mood gets strong colors in the Journey Down!

Thanks again all!

Just wanted to drop by and say things are moving nicely and that the deadline still seems realistic.
The last pieces of music are now falling into place and maaaan does it feel good. 

Here's another quickie to keep the thread interesting. I've been getting questions regarding the technique behind the pictures. I realize this isn't exactly a tutorial but maybe it will be of interest to some of you at least! Maybe I can make a more proper rundown once chapter 1 is released and I feel less stressed out.



Oh and GarageGothic, I'm sorry but I think that font is there to stay. It gives me a nice retro vibe. Perhaps it's a bit too common among ags games though... something a bit more original would be nice but I like how easy it is to read. And after all that has got to be the most important thing, no?

It's cool how the style has many colors but still is coherent in it's own muted, dark, depressing way.

Looking forward to this one!

Pinback: Here are some zooms for you. The art won't appear this hi-res in the game though. (As you can tell the level of detail is rather low since it's intended for 320x240... and... because I'm lazy  .)

Monsieur OUXX: Agreed. Some tinting is required. I've been trying to fool myself that having the characters pop out is part of the style but I'm not falling for it no matter what I do to convince myself...  :

angel1985: Good to have you back testing! Good luck!

Gravity: I've got a trailer in the workings, but the way it looks now it seems like the game will be completed before the trailer is heh...

This is plain awesome. I wish some adult had me doing these kind of projects when I was a kid. I would have loved it. 

I spent some minutes looking around in the game and here are some of my quick thoughts:

Hugo's idle pose while looking right/left is a bit tense. He does not look comfortable.

I like all the GUI's and the look all in all is nice and coherent. I personally would punch up the lighting a notch though, what I've seen so far has been flatter than necessary. Don't be afraid of having powerful light sources. I'm curious, what are you rendering these in?

You are not scaling Hugo. It hurts the perspective part of my brain. (My perspective part is somewhat dominant compared to others though so I don't know how important this is for people in general.)

For some reason I had a hard time getting indoors from the balcony. Not sure why. Small hotspot simply I guess.

I like the bloopreent map. Nice design!

Man this looks absolutely balls to the walls drop dead beautiful.

New screens as promised!

Pinback: These screens are as big as they get. Could stretch 'em I guess but that would end up a half assed experience I think.
The game will do a good job stretching these pixels to full screen though... You'll practically hear them scream. 

I could post some artwork though hmm...

Thanks all.   
I'll post some more screenshots this weekend when I get back home from a little trip of mine.

J.H - Tiki? Most characters in the Journey Down are based on African masks of one sort or other. I'm probably not the only one who had that idea heh.

Arj0n - Hey man good seeing you are up and about. I've sent you an email with a link to the latest version of the beta. Thanks!

Gravity - All in all the full story of the Journey Down is actually quite intricate, chapter one however is quite lightweight and easygoing. Don't expect deep philosophical metaplots this time around.

Thanks all for your kind words! I'm glad the screenies make an impression, as my life has more or less revolved around working on this for the past four years. I will do my very best not to disappoint you.

Ryan: Heh, if you're up to it, there's a new beta waiting for you, with new backdrop anims and a bunch of new puzzles. I'll send you an email. Thanks for all your help man. I'm sorry I keep pushing out new versions... But I like it polished!

CaptainD: Perhaps the backdrop skyscrapers give you the br mood? I'm a big fan of Syd Mead, perhaps it shows through:)

Ben304: Hey dude! Yeah sorry for lurking. I just figured, once I join here I'll never get any work done so I've stayed away as good as I can. If you are up for another beta run I'd love to send it to you, I can see if you are fed up with it by now though heh.

Thanks again

This seems massive to say the least! Lookin' forward to seeing some more.

I'm looking forward to this game bigtime. The mood is spot on. Consider me a customer if the price isn't too steep (and if the payment options suit me.)

[Over the Edge]

Chapter one
Over the Edge

The Journey Down is a classical point and click adventure game, full to the brim with puzzles, conspiracies, mystery and adventure!

In chapter 1 "Over the Edge" we follow Bwana and his trusted sidekick Kito, as they struggle to make ends meet at their waterfront gas station in an off-beat place called Kingsport bay. When all hope seems lost and the power company is on their case with a mean threat, something promising appears. A woman. A woman with cash. What strings does she come attached with? What secrets are hiding underneath her fair surface? Find out, in chapter one of The Journey Down!

The game as a whole (4 chapters) has been a project of mine for over 4 years. Most of this time has been spent writing and sketching the whole plot out, but another large part has been scripting, animating and pasting together that wich is about to be released as chapter 1: Over the Edge. To say that I underestimated the size of this project when I started it would be a tremendous understatement. However, I now finally have enough of chapter 1 finished to feel comfortable with making this post. More or less everything is finished. Some music and sound still needs to be lodged in place, and some final rounds of testing need to be done, but apart from that, we are ready for launch.

Room art (won't appear this hi-res in the game)

I am aiming for a release of "Over the Edge" some time late August. As we all know though, such dates are bound to change.


Key features:

* Dazzling full motion cinematics!
* More than 20 Locations!
* Over 15 bizzare characters!
* An all original jazzy reggae soundtrack!

Keep your eyes on this thread for updates. And, err.. sorry for lurking for five years.  :

I gotta say, what you got so far looks awesome! I hope you find it rewarding enough to work with that you actually follow it through to the end. It looks incredibly promising.

Good luck with the animations. It is no doubt they that make DOTT stand out graphically.