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A one-room AGI/AGS adventure to promote SpaceVenture?


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Oh, and another dude had ideas involving cats and scaring them off, perhaps luring a mouse with cheese to lure a cat to get it away from the power cable (or something), but I think they were trolling me :)

 

Definitely not sold on in-game cats

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Oh, and another dude had ideas involving cats and scaring them off, perhaps luring a mouse with cheese to lure a cat to get it away from the power cable (or something), but I think they were trolling me :)

 

Definitely not sold on in-game cats

 

sounds like day of the tentacle (future segment with laverne where you have to trick the cat into painting itself with white paint so it looks like a skunk to scare prisoners)

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I love this idea, and I'd hate to see it buried by getting over-complicated.

 

I think we should stick with the idea of having one artist guy knock out a couple of backgrounds, have one guy write the script/puzzles, and have a couple of guys code up in AGS.

 

It took Leonard and I two days to knock out a very cheap, multi-room Myst-style FMV game (with backgrounds and video captured on my smartphone). So I think everyone is right: we need to select a team, preferably as small as possible, and set them off.

 

I think Jess should take all the suggestions on board and write / design it, if he has time, since he came up with the idea. Then we can show-of-hands who wants to / is able to help out in the other departments.

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I have a design document written (rough, but I think it covers most of what the promo "needs" to happen, as far as puzzles, items, and so forth). Let's do AGS. That seems to be where the talent lies.

 

Graphics? Sound? Programming?

 

I figure we get the graphics and puzzles nailed down, then I can go back and write click events, descriptions, and so forth like a madman. Then again, I've never done this before. Is that a reasonable way to proceed?

 

Jess

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Are we sure this will have the intended effect if AGI graphics are used? They might be fun for us, but will they really attract anyone new who hasn't played an AGI game in their life? I kinda doubt it.

At the very best this could get some press, like "these guys here made a little game to show their support for this project".

Plus, as we've all seen, things can get misinterpreted very easily and people might start believing SpaceVenture will have that kind of graphics too.

 

Anyway, just a thought. And I might be able to help with bitmap graphics for the background, but don't count on me. And for the character... can't Roger Wilco be ripped from one of the games? Maybe edited afterwards if we don't want it to be exactly the same.

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The plan at this stage is to move ahead with AGS. My feeling is that we have more folks who have experience working with that engine.

 

If we're going to make this happen, what we need -- and need fast -- are people who will step up and volunteer to generate the art and do the scripting. Specifically, these hypothetical individuals should have experience working with AGS and plenty of free time on their hands over the next five days or so.

 

If we can't nail it down soon, I think our window will close.

 

Jess

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OK, so I worked on something too. s_d's idea was cool, I think, but maybe we could go for something more related to Space Quest/SpaceVenture.

So, here's what I did:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v635/sfg/test.png

 

And for a more "old-school" look:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v635/sfg/test2.png

 

The main idea could remain to fix the computer I guess and then have stuff displayed on the big screen. Something like "support independent developers" and the link to the Kickstarter page.

So, what do you people think? There's really not much time left. If someone wants to go on with this I can add or change stuff as needed. The picture is made of layers for everything so changing it is easy.

I have some ideas for puzzles and text that I'll try to put together, but maybe someone with better English can give it a try? Also, for the character... can someone rip Roger Wilco from SQ5? It seems like it could work if we use the pixelated version of the background. I don't think we have time to create a new character.

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Not sure if it will help much at this stage, but here's the rough design document I wrote up a few days back. The problem, of course, is that my design is such that it's almost impossible to draw on any existing art resources -- not entirely smart on my part, but it's my first crack at this sort of thing.

 

If anyone can salvage puzzles/concepts/whatever from that document, feel free. Time is running out, but if I can help with any of the writing along the way, I will.

 

Jess

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Looks great, DJ! Remarks (my opinion alone, not making demands!):

  • Trying to leave the apartment could trigger a message like "You can't bear leaving until you've pledged! TGFA are counting on you!"
  • Vohaul can be a background art element; look/click him and trigger "Vohaul is too sleepy to play... he's been busy eating your power cord."
  • Don't need the boyfriend element; when the door puzzle is unlocked, let her leave to go "convince all of her friends and co-workers to pledge!"
  • Calendar puzzle is extra complication that could just be covered in the intro exposition.
  • Let inventory possession cover the problem of using the computer, simply click to use computer;

    • Not plugged in; triggers message "Try plugging it in. That battery hasn't held a charge in six months!"
    • Cord not fixed; triggers message "Hmm... Vohaul's been at it again, the wire is exposed. Better fix that fire hazard first!"
    • Don't have the password; triggers message "You can't seem to log in! What was your password again?"
    • No credit card; triggers message "You start to pledge! $35? $150? $750!?" then "... but you can't remember your credit card number."
  • The frequent "tgakick.com" mentions... here's an idea, see if Irishmile is cool with permitting use of his recruitment poster on the bedroom wall :-)
Both nextheory and filipst have volunteered and claim to have the skills to do the room. Filipst has some ideas above which are sci-fi but not your idea... still need sprites though. Perhaps we can cheat and use AGI style sprites in a VGA world...

 

Also, for music, if push comes to shove, there's plenty of open culture, CC-licensed material available, though it would still require filtering & selection (to fit the concept), a bit of audio engineering (making it loopworthy) and then we'd have to make a decision on sound effects. I think we'd need three music tracks; intro, gameplay, victory. With "guard rails", as above, the player cannot lose or die, so this plays more like a LucasArts game (unless we fry her if she neglects to fix the power cord).

 

Really need sprites... are there any AGS-friendly creative-commons adventure game asset libraries on the internet?

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Wow, I really like that outline you made, Jess. I think it'll be really fun to play. My only suggestion is that if we want the girl to be truely geeky, she should find a soldering iron in the drawer, and she resolders the cable. S_D suggested that that could simplify things to get this out quicker by having the soldering iron in the same toolbox as the pliers.

 

Also, the solder smoke could be a good device for a death scene, if we want at least one quick death scene in the game.

 

Just some ideas :)

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It is possible that nextheory is taking a whack at a background. I'm not sure what he'll come up with but he sounded enthusiastic to help. He's also hung over :-P

 

Someone might ping him on IRC in #sq ... I'm packing up for a business trip to Colorado so I'll probably vanish for most of tomorrow morning.

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I honestly didn't think I'd be up for it, but I slapped together a very, very rough background, plus the various objects that can be removed/manipulated. The first picture is the background itself, the second one is the background with the objects in place (plus two sketches of the main character at various scales), and the third one is the various objects, some of which will use more than one image (e.g., the drawer, the toolbox). The only things I changed were adding the solar system model hanging from the ceiling and making the TV and the table it's on slightly obscured -- the cell phone is hidden between the two sofa cushions here. ;)

 

Again, it's really rough, the perspective is wonky, I'm still in the dark about what is and isn't going to be in this game, but I figured I might as well do something.

 

post-721-0-59756200-1338696975_thumb.gif

post-721-0-37815700-1338696984_thumb.gif

post-721-0-06848200-1338696992_thumb.gif

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Nextheory, you are an amazing artist... I'm blown away that this was one nights, work, I just don't know what to say. Well, after driving to Colorado (I still haven't left... I overslept after staying up too late bumping forums until 3AM) I'm gonna *learn* freakin' AGS just for this image, if not for the Two Guys, One Room effort here...

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