Some doodles for my attempt at a game.

[Haze]

Hi everyone. I've lurked about for a while and finally decided to join and post, hoping for some feedback.

I'm working on a game (obviously) which I'm planning to be a sort of surreal/horror/mystery story.

It'd be helpful to know what you guys make of the art style - is it appealing or should I think about changing it?

This is the first room I made:



The room with one of the characters, Anna:



A painting to go on one of the walls:



The game will basically be first person, but some cutscenes and "danger" scenes will switch to third person. I intend to put more ephasis on characters than locations but I still want the backgrounds and rooms to look good and have plenty to interact with (which is the thing I'm finding most difficult.)

Any advice?

[GM-Support]

looks nice!

[Candle]

very nice.

[Lyberodoggy]

Your project seems very nice and I can't wait to get a demo of your work... The images are very well designed and I think they give the surrelistic look you wanted.
What you have to pay attention to (in my opinion):
1) A good adventure game deserves a good soundtrack. Give the same importance to both images and sounds in order to create the best atmosphere...
2)Your idea about danger scenes is something I 've been thinking too, but cannot be accomplished using AM I 'm afraid. The only thing you can do is add a time limit to solve a puzzle but nothing more than that (except if you are that talented).
3)A little bit of black humor may fit in the senario and add more interest (but wrong use of it may ruin the game...)
4)Interacting with the scenery and having the actor examing everything mentioning their use could be fun...
5)You should concentrate on the caracters not only as a designer, but also as a writer... You should definetely analyse the caracters in your mind and then try to intergrate it to your game using dialogues.


As I said I can't wait...
Hope my piece of advice was useful...

[Haze]

Thanks guys.

Your project seems very nice and I can't wait to get a demo of your work... The images are very well designed and I think they give the surrelistic look you wanted.
What you have to pay attention to (in my opinion):
1) A good adventure game deserves a good soundtrack. Give the same importance to both images and sounds in order to create the best atmosphere...
2)Your idea about danger scenes is something I 've been thinking too, but cannot be accomplished using AM I 'm afraid. The only thing you can do is add a time limit to solve a puzzle but nothing more than that (except if you are that talented).
3)A little bit of black humor may fit in the senario and add more interest (but wrong use of it may ruin the game...)
4)Interacting with the scenery and having the actor examing everything mentioning their use could be fun...
5)You should concentrate on the caracters not only as a designer, but also as a writer... You should definetely analyse the caracters in your mind and then try to intergrate it to your game using dialogues.


As I said I can't wait...
Hope my piece of advice was useful...

It was, cheers!

1) I'm intending to put sound in, although I'm not too sure what to do with it yet as any free sound resoures I found online seemed pretty low quality.

2) I'm learning as I go, but my general plan was to show the danger - for example, something rushes towards you in first person, or the angle switches to third person to show the main character being attacked - then there would be a few frames of the danger increasing that it switches to after a few seconds, and after that it goes to a game over screen which takes the player back to the same situation or main menu. Resolving the danger would involve quickly interacting with certain hotspots or using an item. That was my thought on it anyway, it might not be possible but I'd like to try to find a way.

3&5) The characters will probably have the most depth out of anything in the game; I'm going for different aspects with each of them so there's some tragedy, some creepiness, some downright weirdness and some humour. I think humour can work fine in any story as long as it's kept far enough away from anything that's supposed to be serious or frightening so I'm going to do my best to keep them apart.

[Lyberodoggy]

Well as for sound, there are so many samples you can find... If you don't find what you want for free you can create something yourself... If you prefer the midi solution, I would suggest you convert them to wma or mp3 using jetaudio because it makes midi sound better...
Ok, I gotta close my post because we 're getting a little bit off-topic here, but if you find any problems working on your project or if you need any fresh techniques, after asking in the forums, pm me

[Imari]

I very much like your characters. They remind me a little of Gorey's work. Very nice subdued color schemes too. One suggestion, the candelabra in the first frame looks too large and rather low on the wall. Perhaps you're going for that exaggeration, though.

Best of luck with this.

[Haze]

I very much like your characters. They remind me a little of Gorey's work. Very nice subdued color schemes too. One suggestion, the candelabra in the first frame looks too large and rather low on the wall. Perhaps you're going for that exaggeration, though.

Best of luck with this.

Thanks! Aye the proportions do look a bit dodgy, that scene will be changed before it goes into the game. It was really just a tester but I think I can recycle it into part of a room.

Who is Gorey? Can you link to some of their work?

Well as for sound, there are so many samples you can find... If you don't find what you want for free you can create something yourself... If you prefer the midi solution, I would suggest you convert them to wma or mp3 using jetaudio because it makes midi sound better...
Ok, I gotta close my post because we 're getting a little bit off-topic here, but if you find any problems working on your project or if you need any fresh techniques, after asking in the forums, pm me

Ahh thank you very much.

A couple more pictures of object/character concepts-

Another picture of Anna:



Close up of a vanity table from one of the rooms:



Another character, Celia:

[Lyberodoggy]

Nice! Are you drawing by hand or using your pc?

[Imari]

Very nice characters, again.

Edward Gorey was an illustrator of the last century. His work was predominantly macabre in nature, and done in black and white line drawings occassionally heightened with areas of subdued color. His people were most often elongated, and had dark circles around their tiny eyes. A lot of his work used exaggerated perspective to effect.

[Haze]

Nice! Are you drawing by hand or using your pc?

Thanks, everything was drawn by hand with pencil and coloured in using Photoshop. Some things have been drawn and superimposed onto a second picture (ie; the bottles and writing on the vanity table).

Very nice characters, again.

Edward Gorey was an illustrator of the last century. His work was predominantly macabre in nature, and done in black and white line drawings occassionally heightened with areas of subdued color. His people were most often elongated, and had dark circles around their tiny eyes. A lot of his work used exaggerated perspective to effect.

I looked up some of his work on google, I like his style. I'm surprised I hadn't heard of him before.

[Candle]

They look very SteamPunk, I like that a lot .
SteamPunk!

[Haze]

Haha, my work's never been compared to Steampunk before. I'm not sure whether it will fall into any genres like that... the characters have somewhat different styles. Some minor Gothic Lolita inspirations have crept in to two of the designs so far.

A very rushed concept of Celia's ghost:

[Lyberodoggy]

Really nice, keep us up-to-date...

[Mystery]

Great pics! And being talented with drawing, you can give your game an individual style

Good luck with your project, and keep us updated!

[Haze]

Thanks folks.

A couple more things.



The building in which the game is set is going to have four main floors, each decorated to represent a different season of the year. This is one of the 'winter' rooms from the 4th floor.



Another character concept for the wife of the owner of the house.

[Lyberodoggy]

Nice thinking...



I hope the scenario is going to be as good as the preview pics given...

[Haze]

Haha so do I! I'm putting a lot of effort into making interesting and unique characters and they'll all have subplots that won't be vital to the main story but will be available to investigate. The only comparison I can really think of is "Last Express". I guess I'll explain it a bit more when the first chapter is more complete.

I've found someone to do music for me so I'm happy, now I just have a million things to draw...

[Mystery]

Great images Haze!
I'm happy for you that you have found a composer.
Good luck!

[Haze]

Thanks Mystery.

Another room I finished today and a close up of one of it's bizarre decorations:

[Mystery]

Looks again great
And bizarre, too

[Haze]

Cheers, I was going for a cross between art Deco and voodoo incantation symbols.

I've still got a lot of work to do but I'm hoping to be able to have the first chapter of this complete within a few weeks. I could make it very quickly but that would leave the chapter rather linear and I want there to be plenty to do...

Hmm, appears I forgot to mention the name of the game - I've dediced to call it 'Weeper'.

[Lyberodoggy]

Once again nice job.
Are you going to compile every chapter in different games or all in one?

[Haze]

Thank you.

Each chapter will be as separate 'game' in the sense you just download that part of it, although they'll all be part of the same actual game if you get what I mean. The chapters are all going to be set around the same building but different parts will change/open up as the story progresses, and the characters will all develop. I'm hoping to put every character into every chapter, but only a few will actually have a vital role in that part of the story so you are left to interact with or investigate the others at your own leisure... it's a lot of work but it's the way I want it done.

I guess one day wayyyyyy in the future the chapters could be compiled into one game but it'd be a massive file, since I'm hoping to make about five or six plus an epilogue.

[Lyberodoggy]

Got your meaning. Ok nice thinking. You could even use some vbs to check if the player has ended the previous chapter in order to start the new one. This could help:

In the last frame of your game, in the frame displaying "The End", write this code

Code: Select all

Action.SaveParameter "game_complete",1

Then you could read the parameter when starting the next chapter to see if the game was completed before (but it is possible they may want to play your second chapter after finishing the first in another computer, so I wouldn't suggest restricting them from playing the second part without completing the first).

[Haze]

That kind of thing might be useful for sort of customising the development of the plot amongst the characters - say the player finds a certain object in act 2, for example an inciminating letter, then can use it to confront a character in act 3... I suppose it'd be a case of fiddling around with a lot of variables and saving it, tricky but the result would be much better than containing all the side-stories to one chapter at a time! I'm getting a bit ahead of myself though haha. Thank you for the code.

Edit:

I've made a very small demo. This should probaby go in the games announcement bit but it seems pointless putting it there because there's so little to do in the game right now. I'd appreciate some feedback if anyone tries playing, whether it runs smoothly or not, if I should be doing anything different etc...

http://download.yousendit.com/DC5145F57F3BD91C

[Haze]

Sorry about the double post but I didn't think anyone would notice if I just edited the last once since it's nearly a week old.

[rpgfaker]

wow this looks like it's going to be one cool game, great drawings especially Celia's ghost

[Haze]

Thank you.

I'm very pleased with how it's going. I've got some people voicing the characters which will add a nice touch, and about half of the rooms for the first chapter are ready. My only disappointment is that I can't give the characters animations or make it fully third-person, but I don't posess the skill or patience to do either. I'm hoping people will enjoy it anyway.

A room I'm working on right now:

[Mystery]

Really phantastic drawings, Haze, can't wait to see them "in action" in the game!