It was more the pictures that were worrying me. I agree about the conversation structure, although I think it works reasonably well in the real thing, rather like Fahrenheit. Mind you, I tried playing Mass Effect again recently on the Renegade path, but every time I chose a renegade-ey option I felt like such a prick:

Soldier: "They brutally killed my entire unit, hugs tiem naow?"
Me: "Soldiers die"

Civilian: "They're dead, they're all dead. Gibber."
Me: "You'd better have given me all your stuff, or I'll kill you."

At least when I picked the Paragon options I felt like a proper space hero.

Hello, I'm Will, and I'm still upset that the profile page told me how old I am

I've been working in the games industry for the last 10 years or so, the last four as a freelancer. I now mainly do 3D coding and optimisation, since it's hard not to specialise if you want to sell your skills, but I have an interest in all kinds of game and application programming. I'd also like to put in a good word for mainstream games and the mainstream industry - I've always loved my work even though it has been a bit stressful at times, and I don't reckon mainstream gets enough love from the indy sector

One of the things I really wanted to do while freelancing is some indie-like projects (like the hobby game coding I did in my teens and at uni) but I keep getting distracted by paying work. So I've entered the current compo and I'm hoping that will give me a bit more motivation to start finish something without causing me to miss my work deadlines...

I've been reading the site (but not so much the forums) for a while after finding out about it at a conference last year. Thanks for putting me in touch with so many cool games!

Will

PS: I was born in the South of England, does that come with free credentials?

Perhaps a picture of your potential conquest, with two buttons:

"DO" "DON'T DO"

Followed by fade to black and scratchy voiceover if you select the first one?

One of the implications of demaking Mass Effect is the converation stuff, which scares me owing to asset requirements. I suspect that element is going to be downplayed a bit, which is a pity since it was also a big part of SC2.

Hi all,

Get latest demo here: http://www.secondintention.com/files/effort_3.zip

Assuming this makes the deadline, this is my compo entry. It isn't remotely complete but it sort of shows the direction I want to go in.

Keys:

LMB or ENTER: select
RMB: cancel
ESC: quit
ALT-ENTER: toggle fullscreen
ARROWS: move map cursor/drive rover
SPACE: fire rover jets

If you don't have VC2008 already, install the VC 2008 redist

If you don't have June 2008 DirectX or later already, install the  DirectX websetup

If you like to be amused, read on to see how foolishly ambitious I was a few short weeks ago. Still, I'm happy with what I've done so far (considering I didn't even have any rendering code when I started) and hopefully I can figure out a way to make it into a proper game in due course.

----

Somewhat of a delurk and a first post, hope you don't mind me joining in. I thought I'd have a go at this one after being tempted to enter the VGNG compo but never having got started (although Dirty Sniper Fight needs to be made someday...)

Hopefully my work commitments (I have a contract deadline round about the end of August) aren't going to get in the way too much. We'll see.



I'm sure you can guess the game in question I'm intending to target early PC Mode-X, with elements of Star Control II, Hard Nova, and possibly Albion. I'm pretty sure at least one of these was a direct influence on the demake target. Gameplay should include space exploration and ground combat with some basic RPG elements and hopefully the option of an endgame when you get to a high enough level.

Apologies for the artwork, the background is cobbled together from pixel art I recovered from some 15 year old floppies. The elements were created in DPIIE and AA Pro for that authentic feel, but the text and assembly is Photoshop. I'm not crazy enough to try and develop without modern tools, so the Mode-X stuff will be a fake.

Also, should I be posting a 'o hai, i'z new' message elsewhere?

Cheers,

Will