next »

[trybaj]

Hey guys,

I've come a long way with this game. I've been developing the physics and graphics engines for the last year and a half, and have finally gotten into the level and character design phase. I think the time spent on the engine has been well worth it, since I think it's bought me some unique game play.

I don't want to give away the whole story just yet, but the demo is planned to cover this:

You are Abraham Lincoln, and the game starts in the Presidential box at Ford's Theater. Before the show starts, a time traveler appears. He warns you of your impending assassination and helps you escape as you learn the controls. You can use your beard to grab objects and enemies and move, shake, and throw them. Abe is also blessed with some strong legs, and if he gets moving fast enough, he can run right up a vertical wall.

After fleeing the theater, you learn that the intended course of history has been disturbed. The consequences are dire, and it's up to Abraham to set things right- all while trying to uncover the plot to kill him. To make things even more difficult, the time traveler wasn't happy to just mess things up in reconstruction era USA. He has taken it upon himself to visit a number of yet to be determined locations, creating trouble for Abe to set right all throughout history.

A number of plot twists are planned, and will be reveled through in-game dialog a la the Zelda games.

I am developing on a Linux machine, and just whipped up a Windows executable. After I send it to some  friends for sanity checking, I'll throw the intro level up here to get some feedback. For now, how about some screenshots?



I want to add a beard hanging from his face that follows your mouse pointer. That's why the area under his head is so empty.





A look at the dialog system.



A test level with some guys shooting rockets. You can grab the rockets with your beard and throw them back!



Worms bursting from the ground in another test level.



How does my baby look so far? I'm not an artist by any stretch of the imagination, but I'm proud of what I've come up with so far. The largest hole right now is sound- there isn't any. If anyone has some advice on good tools or resources for sound effects or music, I would be much obliged. Check back here for some demo goodness in the next few days, once I confirm that this bad boy can actually run on other people's computers.

[nihilocrat]

I think the art is just perfect. Something would be wrong if it looked super-professional and well-polished.

[jstckr]

This looks amazing.

[Renton]

Haha. I love it.

[Alex May]

Honestly - it could use an artist's hand.

Some criticisms:
 - Your characters are really squashed - they look like they're at the wrong aspect ratio. Similar problems affect the tree and the worms in your other shots.

 - The colour schemes don't seem to be coherent at all. There are a lot of standard colours and they don't seem to be married to each other in any way.

 - There is evidence of a lot of standard Photoshop filters in use. A lot can be done to make your textures more interesting.

 - You've mixed hand-drawn with photographic art. It really jars and sets off any colour schemes you might have had.

I really love the concept of the game and the actual gameplay sounds like it will be a lot of fun! But I'd suggest you get an artist. Right now your game is exhibiting a strong sense of "coder art".

Sorry for the brutally short post, gotta run.

[Bree]

This sounds like it could be the best thing ever. Some of the graphics don't quite mesh with one another, but the concept's solid and awesome as hell.

[moi]

This is some sort of programmer art but it looks ok for the job. Now we want the demo!

[godsavant]

I really want to play this. The art style is fine as is, it's all part of its charm.

[trybaj]

Thanks for the feedback guys! I'm glad to hear there's some enthusiasm for this idea.

@Alex
您会说中文吗? 我在上海住.
There's some mandarin under your pic, so I apologize if I guessed wrong. I'm down to my last 2 weeks living in Shanghai. Do you have some connection to China?

Thanks for your honest criticisms. You're spot on on at least 2 counts:
1. I never sat back to think about my palette. It will be an important aspect of design, especially since I'm looking to create a number of different "historic eras." Palette consistency will probably make that process much more effective.
2. My aspect ratios were off. I've gone ahead and fixed that. I think that after staring at this game for so long I just got used to the squished look.

I hate to point out that you were wrong on one:
They're not photoshop filters, they're gimp filters!   :D

Honestly, thanks for the feedback. Do you have any insights for meeting and courting good digital artists? I think the right partner could really give this game a boost, but I don't really have any experience in building my own team. Any insights are much appreciated.

[William Broom]

If you're looking for an artist, you could start by posting in the 'COLLABORATION' thread right here on Tigsource. But I kind of like the style you have going now, it's not great art but it seems to fit well with the game's concept. Which is awesome by the way!!!

[pgil]

I like the graphics too. It has sort of a Terry Gilliam style, with the collage look. If you took that further it could look really cool.

[godsavant]

Thanks for the feedback guys! I'm glad to hear there's some enthusiasm for this idea.

@Alex
您会说中文吗? 我在上海住.
There's some mandarin under your pic, so I apologize if I guessed wrong. I'm down to my last 2 weeks living in Shanghai. Do you have some connection to China?

<<Chinese, muthafucka, DO YOU SPEAK IT. I live in Shanghai.>>

[ஒழுக்கின்மை (Paul Eres)]

Honestly - it could use an artist's hand.

Some criticisms:
 - Your characters are really squashed - they look like they're at the wrong aspect ratio. Similar problems affect the tree and the worms in your other shots.

 - The colour schemes don't seem to be coherent at all. There are a lot of standard colours and they don't seem to be married to each other in any way.

 - There is evidence of a lot of standard Photoshop filters in use. A lot can be done to make your textures more interesting.

 - You've mixed hand-drawn with photographic art. It really jars and sets off any colour schemes you might have had.

I really love the concept of the game and the actual gameplay sounds like it will be a lot of fun! But I'd suggest you get an artist. Right now your game is exhibiting a strong sense of "coder art".

Sorry for the brutally short post, gotta run.

i agree with and second this post. i too love the idea but feel the art needs a more experienced artist

[Cevo70]

I think the art has some "charm" and you could argue that the unusual theme warrants unsual art.  But for it's not some much the style, as the mixmash of styles and resolutions.   That's more jarring in my opinion.   

Looks fun though I must say. 

For music/sound you can find free programs online (I use garageband personally), and lots of free SFX.  In general though, music is one of the more affordable assets.  Cheaper than an artist.

[Alex May]

Thanks for the feedback guys! I'm glad to hear there's some enthusiasm for this idea.

@Alex
您会说中文吗? 我在上海住.
There's some mandarin under your pic, so I apologize if I guessed wrong. I'm down to my last 2 weeks living in Shanghai. Do you have some connection to China?

Thanks for your honest criticisms. You're spot on on at least 2 counts:
1. I never sat back to think about my palette. It will be an important aspect of design, especially since I'm looking to create a number of different "historic eras." Palette consistency will probably make that process much more effective.
2. My aspect ratios were off. I've gone ahead and fixed that. I think that after staring at this game for so long I just got used to the squished look.

I hate to point out that you were wrong on one:
They're not photoshop filters, they're gimp filters!   :D

Honestly, thanks for the feedback. Do you have any insights for meeting and courting good digital artists? I think the right partner could really give this game a boost, but I don't really have any experience in building my own team. Any insights are much appreciated.

You're very welcome!

I'm trying to learn a bit of Chinese, bit by bit, as my wife is from Taiwan. She's looking for work in Shanghai at the moment so we may move out there at some point.

As for courting artists, I think the best thing is to leave your game waiting for one to come along. Postin ghere is a great start, there are tons of really great guys here, talent just waiting for a project. Good luck! As suggested, post up in the art forum and the collab thread. If I were an artist I'd love to do some screwed up art for a game like this :D

[Loren Schmidt]

There are several tons of really good artists floating around these waters, and this sounds like a really fun, funky game. I'm sure you'll have no trouble finding someone.

I'd advise just marching onward, doing what you do best, rather than hurrying to find an artist as quickly as possible. Take your time and find someone who's a good match for you.

Looking at the screenshots, I wonder if a textural, paper cut-out style might work- something like a collage made of crudely cut out blocks of text and articulated photo pieces from newspapers?

[trybaj]

Alright, a Windows version of the demo is here:

Honest Abraham Demo

Hopefully, all you need to know to start is that A & D are left and right. E lets you talk to friendly characters and go through doors. The rest of the controls should be explained in the first level.

Like I said, I'm developing on Linux, so if there's anyone out there who would really like it, I can put a Linux version up too.

I'm really interested to hear how it runs on various machines. My laptop's a dog, but runs this game smoothly. I'm also interested to hear how it looks. I've already noticed some pretty big differences in rendering just between the 3 computers I've tested it on. I'm not sure if its display settings, gfx cards, or opengl implementations that is causing the differences, but I'd love to find out.

Also, assuming the game runs smoothly: how does it feel? Do you like the physics? Can you figure out the first level? Does the difficulty seem right for learning the controls?

All feedback is much appreciated!
 

[trybaj]

Here are a few more screen shots to motivate some demo players!



I added the dynamic beard pointer on the title screen.



Run up walls!



Catch rockets with your beard!

[trybaj]

Here's a screen shot showing a new art style. I'm trying to achieve a more consistent cartoon style, so I've avoided hi-res photos and filters. I would still have to redesign Lincoln, but what do you think of the rest of the scene? I think the style will land somewhere between this really simple look and the slightly higher detail in the first level. I agree with everyone who said that mixing photographic backgrounds with (poorly) hand drawn elements was unwise.


By trybaj

[One of the Beatles]

just dump the gradients and all will be fine.