A virus!
Feb/100
Two updates in one day! You lucky, lucky people.
I just finished modelling what I imagine the viruses to look like. I don’t know if they will end up like this in the final game, but here we are anyway.
Evil Virus!
Animation and Large Files
Nov/090
Well I’ve been really enjoying working with AGS so far.
Progress is moderately speedy, considering I am creating character animations and items as and when I need them. I may even be so bold as to say I’m actually getting quite good with character animation in general!
I’m having a few issues with filesize at the moment; the compiled .exe of the game is currently nudging 60MB and I haven’t even got 1/10th of the game in the editor yet. I’m eager to find out why that is, but it’s not really that much of an issue because I can compress the final builds by a huge amount (got the aforementioned 60MB down to 2.3).
Marvin Meets the Snugglewumpus
Watch this space for more.
New Walk Cycle!
Oct/090
Okay, I psyched myself up and did a new walk cycle for Marvin (completely scrapping all the animation I’d done already).
I’m actually quite happy with this one – looks like the game is back on!
Gaahhh.
Oct/090
Trying hard to get back into the workflow, but every time I attempt to do some more character animation I’m reminded that I suck at just drawing people, let alone animating them.
Consider this an impassioned cry for help. If you can animate characters and want your name shown prominently in the credits of the game, please let me know.
Like a Speeding Freight Train
Jul/090
In a veritable blitz of creativity, I’ve finished all the character sketches and all 26 inventory items (fixing a few issues with gameplay along the way)!
I’ll be moving onto designing the GUI tomorrow, although I haven’t really given it a great deal of thought up to this point.
I have sketched the backgrounds in ‘widescreen’ proportions, so I’d imagine it is entirely feasible that I can fill up the gaps at the top and bottom of the (1024×768; 4:3 proportions rather than 16:9/16:10) game screen, but the more I think about it the less I want an interface like that of LucasArts classics.
Don’t get me wrong, they are a superb design and they’re easy to get around, but I just much prefer the approach of the great Broken Sword with very thin pictorial bars at the top and bottom of the screen (top for inventory, bottom for interaction methods) that appear and disappear when rolled over.
Of course I don’t for one minute claim that my game will be even approaching the gorgeousness of Revolution’s masterpiece, but I do love the cinematic style that the GUI gives to the game.
In terms of the interaction types that will fill that bottom bar, I like to keep things simple. To that end I will endeavour the keep it down to Look, Use, Talk and Pick Up. That pretty much covers any and all eventualities.
I would post some pictures of the character sketches, but I’m incredibly self conscious that the vast majority of them suck. I can normally draw far better using my PC than on paper, so I hope I can do my mental image justice in the final product.
At Last!!
Jul/090
The background drafts are finally all done! It feels nice to put that behind me for now and get on with something new – not that I don’t enjoy designing background art, but things get very dry when you do them on their own for a long time.
Step two of my ‘master plan’ is in three parts – character design, item design and GUI design.
I’ve made a great start on the character design already today, doing seven of what I worked out to be thirty-one in total. It isn’t easy, given that my inability to draw people is in serious need of attention, but hopefully the more I do the better I will get, and I can go back and redraw the earlier characters later.
I never seem to have a problem with drawing cartoon heads and faces, so that is where I’ve been starting each character; the issues arise with drawing the bodies in a way that I’m happy with. I have to find a way to show a good amount of personality in each character but also make them simple enough that I can animate them with ease, so I’m going to be relying heavily on instantly recognisable body types and exaggerated features.
I’m glad I decided the game would have a cartoon style to it; having to draw one realistic character, let alone thirty-one, would leave me very flustered indeed.
On a final note, I haven’t yet named Marvin’s assistants. I’ll be posting a topic to Draglide nearer to production-time to see if anyone would like their name in the game, but if you’re reading this and I haven’t made an announcement about it, feel free to drop me a line.
Accursed Sun!!
Jul/090
Well my house has been like the inside of a kiln for the last two days, meaning I got a lot less work done that I would have liked. Nevertheless, there are now only 7 backgrounds left to do for Marvin Cooper.
I think once I start drawing these up ‘for real’ I’m going to have to heavily modify a few of them. The more I do, the better I seem to be getting at picking interesting angles. This is great for me and it means that I’m drawing some good-looking backdrops for the game, but it also means that a number of my earlier efforts now look very ‘flat’ and boring. It’ll be a case of keeping the features of the environment, but rotating the whole lot in various degrees depending on the situation.
A cargo lift shaft
A confrontational corridor
It’s been a difficult decision, but I’ve come to the conclusion that to get the very best out of this game I’m going to have to go ‘all the way’ with as many things as possible. With that in mind, I’m going to be aiming for a resolution of 1024×768@32bpp and fully animated characters & objects.
It’s definitely the most detail I’ve ever tried to put into a game and I will approach this monumental task with a great deal of trepidation, but if I can pull it off I’ll be very pleased indeed.
A Good Way In
Jun/090
If, as I suspect, you haven’t been privy to my everyday comings-and-goings, you might be forgiven for thinking I’ve been slacking off a little. I’m glad to say that, if anything, it’s been quite the opposite.
I’m going to be piecing together the room plans for the last section of Marvin Cooper over the next two days, and then it’s full speed ahead once again – a light at the end of the tunnel, if you will – after spending so long doing backgrounds.
I have also decided very firmly that once the final background is drafted, I will put the game into feature lock as far as storyline and gameplay is concerned. I’ve noticed more and more that I’m adding in puzzles and extra bits and bobs where I feel the game feels ‘thin’, and it’s only making more work for me.
As far as Dr. Oddwobble is going, Mr. Blake has been hard at work animating that pepper pot, and I’m pleased to say it looks very good indeed.
Colours yet to be added
It’s been tweaked here and there since the above image was exported, but you get the idea.
David said he enjoyed doing that animation; which is handy, since there’s plenty more where that came from.
Check out his new blog over at http://david-blake.co.uk/blog/.
Finally, A Name!
Jun/090
I had a discussion with David at last about naming the heroically creamy dessert of Dr. Oddwobble’s Snack Shack. After a rally of options (including the hilarious-yet-unusable ‘Jon Long Dong’), we settled on Peter Pudden. At the very least it means I no longer have to refer to it as ‘the protagonist’, which is nice.
I drew up a draft of the friendly pepperpot who will be assisting Peter in the quest, and gave some suggestions to Mr. Blake about how to animate it – I’m looking forward to seeing how it comes out.
No, it doesn't have a name.
All this talk of Dr. Oddwobble might lead you to think I’m letting Marvin Cooper sit out for the moment – but don’t be fooled. I still spend a good amount of time each day scribbling room plans in, and I’ve now worked my way through a comfortable half or so.
Inside a mysterious temple
The scribbles underneath all my plans usually denote a general colour scheme to use and/or ideas for the music to accompany the room – but more on that later in development.
All this drawing of backgrounds for Dr. Oddwobble has got me thinking, though. Originally I planned to have Marvin Cooper as a retro-looking game, with aliased lines and a level of detail reminiscent of the old LucasArts classics, but now I look at the smooth, cartoon style of the rooms I have done and wonder if I should do that instead. On one hand, old-skool graphics are getting a bit clichéd, but on the other hand animating characters and objects in that style is so much easier.
I suppose the only thing to do is carry out some animation tests in both styles and see which I can more feasibly do.
I’ll keep you updated.
Halfway There
Jun/090
Well, according to a handy list I created, I’ve now completed a good half of all the backgrounds for Dr. Oddwobble’s Snack Shack. What this means, functionally, is that we can head towards getting the first half of the game into the engine now, and the backdrops can take a backseat for a little while.
It’s not a conventional development method, and I certainly won’t be using it for Marvin Cooper, but it helps vary the workload for both myself and Mr. Blake. Happy developers are productive developers!
I’m sure you’re all dying to see some more of my fabulous background art </sarcasm>, so here is a door with a hole in it.
It's a catflap, really.
The idea being that I then create the flap to go in the hole seperately, so it is much easier to animate. The objects are pretty much the last bit of art that I’ll have to do for a section of the game (except for the GUI, which I think can wait for now).
In terms of the character stuff, I need to get Dave to animate a friendly pepper-pot and the height-impaired chef. To satiate you in the meantime, here’s the current rolling animation for our hero. Who remains nameless.
It's rolling. A bit.
Now if you’ll excuse me, I think the couple of pints of coffee I drank earlier have started to wear off.
