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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?

(http://img26.imageshack.us/img26/4215/titlescreen.jpg) (http://img26.imageshack.us/i/titlescreen.jpg/)

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.

(http://img19.imageshack.us/img19/7231/holdinglog.jpg) (http://img19.imageshack.us/i/holdinglog.jpg/)

(http://img3.imageshack.us/img3/4958/chatl.jpg) (http://img3.imageshack.us/i/chatl.jpg/)

A look at the dialog system.

(http://img7.imageshack.us/img7/3776/rocketsa.jpg) (http://img7.imageshack.us/i/rocketsa.jpg/)

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

(http://img188.imageshack.us/img188/4426/wormcity.jpg) (http://img188.imageshack.us/i/wormcity.jpg/)

Worms bursting from the ground in another test level.

(http://img33.imageshack.us/img33/9350/rotating.jpg) (http://img33.imageshack.us/i/rotating.jpg/)

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.

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

This looks amazing.

Haha. I love it.

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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!!!

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.

(http://www.qstudy.ru/pict/pulp-fiction.jpg)

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

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

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. :)

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

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?

Alright, a Windows version of the demo is here:

Honest Abraham Demo (http://www.filedropper.com/honestabraham)

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!
 :gentleman:

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

(http://img44.imageshack.us/img44/8093/beardtitlescreen.jpg) (http://img44.imageshack.us/i/beardtitlescreen.jpg/)

I added the dynamic beard pointer on the title screen.

(http://img146.imageshack.us/img146/7036/upwall.jpg) (http://img146.imageshack.us/i/upwall.jpg/)

Run up walls!

(http://img199.imageshack.us/img199/1137/rocketbeard.jpg) (http://img199.imageshack.us/i/rocketbeard.jpg/)

Catch rockets with your beard!

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.

(http://img3.imageshack.us/img3/498/lincolntoonstyle.png) (http://img3.imageshack.us/i/lincolntoonstyle.png/)
By trybaj (http://profile.imageshack.us/user/trybaj)

just dump the gradients and all will be fine.

I think the cartoon look is too simple, so here is a test shot of a slightly more detailed version. Still searching for the right look...

(http://img37.imageshack.us/img37/2238/treetoon.png) (http://img37.imageshack.us/i/treetoon.png/)

After a long journey across Asia, I'm finally back in the USA. I'm dealing with reverse culture shock, and trying to get my life sorted.

I haven't been able to do any concrete work while traveling, since I didn't have my laptop with me, but I have been doing some design. Right now, I'm making decisions about how Abraham should interact with his enemies.

The goal from the start was to have this game hinge on physical interactions- that's the whole justification for the way his beard works. The hard part is dreaming up fun physical interactions that can be used to defeat enemies. Right now, there are only 2 ways:

1) Pick up the bad guy and shake him until he dies.
2) Catch the projectile the bad guy shoots at you, and throw it back at him.

These are fine, but not sufficiently enjoyable to make a whole game with. So, I need to dream up more interactions. Here are some of the ideas I'm working on.

1) Pull-apart enemies
These bad guys have vulnerable body parts attached to tentacles. They will die once Abe pulls all of the vulnerable parts off.

2) Timing pull-aparts
The vulnerable parts are only available during short periods of time. For example, an enemy that breathes fire will open his mouth, present the vulnerable part (on the tip of his tongue) and then cover the area with fire. These come in "pre-attack" and "post-attack" flavors. The example enemy is a pre-attack timing pull-apart. A post-attack will make the vulnerable area available shortly after attacking Abe.

3)Regenerating pull-apart
All of the pieces must be removed quickly, or they will start to grow back.

4) Dodging pull-aparts
The pull-apart body parts move around to dodge Abraham's attacks.

All of the above enemies can be killed just by using good timing and Abraham's beard. Some enemies, however, can only be killed after the player has collected certain items. The first collectible item will be a knife. All weapons are wielded using the beard. If a weapon is equipped, it changes the behavior of the beard. For example, the beard can no longer grab objects when the knife is active.

5) Weapon-vulnerable enemies
These can only be killed by a specific weapon- Knife, gun, missle, electric shock.

6) Weak-spot enemies
These enemies have certain locations that must be attacked in order to kill them. Attacks on other areas will not harm them.

7) Timing weak-spot enemies
The weak spots are available for a short time before or after an attack.

8) pull-apart weak spot enemies
The weak spot is only available after removing all of the pull-apart body parts.

The other half of the enemy design problem is deciding how the enemies attack Abraham. I'll discuss my ideas in another post.

Oh my. I was laughing my rear off when I saw the menu with added beard pointer.

The whole idea for this game is great. I'm already guessing plot twists.

I really hope you finish this game. It will make up for my inability to grow a beard.

I'm extending the Tentacle class to build the pull-apart enemies. I think I'll be able to get some easy enemy variety by making a handful of end-effectors for the tentacles.

Right now the shield pull-apart is the only one I have up and running. If an enemy has at least one shield ball, Abraham will be unable to pick up or injure it. Abe can remove the shield balls by grabbing them with his beard and pulling them off. Here's a small, jpeggy pic of a tentacle crab with 3 shield pull-aparts and one normal tentacle.

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_csq4GnbbnOg/SoY75zYvtMI/AAAAAAAAAA8/KdNu6CVJrNs/s1600-h/pullapart.jpg (http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_csq4GnbbnOg/SoY75zYvtMI/AAAAAAAAAA8/KdNu6CVJrNs/s1600-h/pullapart.jpg)

I also changed the death animations to something a little more dramatic. Earlier, when an enemy died his body would disappear and a ghost would pop out and float away. Now, his body explodes into a bunch of little gibs that bounce off walls and objects. It's much more satisfying. The gibs are subject to the physics engine, so when an enemy is blown up by a rocket or grenade, his gibs will react accordingly.

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_csq4GnbbnOg/So1zTrNc00I/AAAAAAAAABE/0pMtLtk3-y8/s1600-h/gibs.jpg (http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_csq4GnbbnOg/So1zTrNc00I/AAAAAAAAABE/0pMtLtk3-y8/s1600-h/gibs.jpg)

Currently I'm working an an inventory system for Abe. He is going to have to collect weapons and items to solve puzzles and advance through the game. He'll be storing all of his goodies in his hat. When he wants to put away his gun for example, the player will drag it over his hat and plop it in. To pull something out of the hat, the player will press an inventory button which will cause the stored items to display themselves radially around Abe's head. Clicking on one of these will take the item out of the inventory and attach it to Abe's beard.

Here's a video that shows some of the stuff I've been working on.

Abe can now use guns, although so far there's only one handgun, and he can store the gun in his hat if he wants to use his beard. The user can right click to stow away inventory items or to bring up the inventory menu.

This also illustrates the pull-apart enemies I talked about earlier, although I guess there's a case to be made for calling them shoot-apart enemies!

I'm working on getting the feedback loop right while applying forces on the gun so it spends more time pointed in the direction of fire. The bullet will always follow the line of Abe's beard, and I'd like the direction of the gun to reflect that. I have to use my physics system to do it though, or else collisions with the gun, and its reaction to the beard's movements will get funky.

http://vimeo.com/6425308 (http://vimeo.com/6425308)

As always, feedback is much appreciated. The demo linked below is not the most up to date, but it does reflect the first build on my new Windows dev system. Can someone check it out to make sure I didn't miss any dependencies? Also, is there a way to embed vimeo videos here?

I'm forcing myself back into this project. I started a new job a few months ago, and have been devoting most of my programming juices to bringing home the bacon. I'm bribed myself back to Abe by picking up a Wacom tablet.

(http://img18.imageshack.us/img18/2392/abedoodlecopy.png) (http://img18.imageshack.us/i/abedoodlecopy.png/)

On the programming end, I've started putting together the audio system. I think I put this part off for so long because I really don't know how I'm going to scrape together sound effects and music that don't sound cheap. Trying to regain the rhythm so I can make some tangible progress again.

Keep at it!

Yes, please. I really want to fling rockets with Lincoln's beard. This just seems too awesome.

Beard-based gameplay action


I feel the butterflies in my belly :-*
(Oh wait... it was actually my beard)

I've got the memory management stuff done for the audio, so I can cache recently used clips and stream longer music. There's a little coding work left, but mostly just housekeeping to make sure the audio plays nice with the menus. Also, I need to add hooks to entity events so I can put audio info into the level data files. So now, I just have the slow and arduous process of creating assets ahead of me. I'm piecing together sound effects as well as I possibly can. The Bamboo tablet has made the art side of things much easier, maybe I need to get my hands on a synthesizer to super charge the audio process as well.

I've been moving forward on a couple of fronts. I'm continuing to add sound effects, and I'm happy with the depth just a few key clips can make. I worked on my animation tool, so it's easier to build and preview complex animations without a lot of hand editing of data files. I also squashed a few bugs that were making the animation process unbearable. It's resulted in more natural looking animations for the bad guys, but my bipeds still look too choppy in my opinion. I might just need to play with the time between key frames to slow it down a little.

I've fallen in love with my tablet, which is a blessing and a curse. I spent about a week redoing two of the bad guys. I think they look a lot better now, but at some point I have to stop tweaking and just move on. I would have had to re-do them as some point anyway, since using the tablet has given my drawings a much different feel. Either way, they're redone now, so I can move on.

My first new character is a bartender NPC. One of the areas that opens up to the player after escaping Ford's theater is a pub that's been overrun by tentacle slugs and gremlin dogs. The bartender's anxious to get everything back in order before the play lets out, since the after show rush is the best business he gets all week. You've got to admire a businessman so focused on the bottom line that he's less fazed by mutants than he is by the prospect of losing some dough.

The bartender and Lincoln chatting in-game.
(http://img294.imageshack.us/img294/6716/bartenderlincoln.png)

The new gremlin dog and tentacle slug trying to kill Abe.
(http://img407.imageshack.us/img407/1852/gremlinandtentacle.png)

The bullet trails look cooler in motion, but here they are anyway.
(http://img97.imageshack.us/img97/7776/gunshot.png)

So how far along is this whole thing?  Should we expect a release of any kind sometime soon?

I'm in love with the bartender's style. Stretch that out through the game and it will be magnificent  :gentleman:

 :monoclepop:

Those newest screenshots are awesome! The gremlin dog is amazing.

My latest dev work has to do with improving the quality of the AI. I was making do with a pretty rough waypoint path finding system, but I was unhappy with the results. There were too many cases where an enemy would fail to follow the player to an area they should be able to reach, or even worse where they would try to jump across a gulf they should be able to cross, but fail because they jumped without first building up enough speed.

I threw in a full decision tree, hoping I could get a single enemy to look ahead 10 frames or so, evaluating all of his movement options. I was able to get much better behaviors, but it was eating up too much of my cpu. I decided to start optimizing the decision making cycle a bit to see if I couldn't make it work, when I discovered that my poor little game has an ugly memory leak.

Forward progress is going to halt until I get this thing sorted out.

Otherwise, I was on a pretty good tear. I more or less finished sound effect/music system and refined the look and feel of the first levels. Abraham is a bit more polished now, since I brought him in line with the cartoony look by tossing the elements that had originally been photographs.

I don't want to make any promises about a demo release, since this project's saving grace is that it does not have to adhere to any sort of schedule. I have a good idea of where I want to get before putting it out there to fend for itself, but I hope the polish will pay off. Once it's out there in the wild, I want to be able to follow quickly with more content. For that to happen I need the engine to be nailed down, and I need my art workflow to be as painless as possible. The final game is going to be too big to do all in one go, so I will certainly be releasing it in chunks.

Also, I get myself into trouble on this project by skipping crucial things like writing unit tests. It's a part of the day job that often feels like you're just turning the crank, but smart testing could have prevented this memory leak from surviving until so late in the game. Since this is a hobby project, I skipped the stuff that felt too much like work and now I'm paying the price.  :-[