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[Skygoblin]

Hey all!

Just droppin' a line to say me and Henrik (the animator on the commercial release of the Journey Down) have just started some form of development blog over at www.slxgames.com. For you who are curious about our JD progress and/or our general bantering regarding our other projects/tomfoolery, please, drop by! If people visit the damn thing we might actually bother keeping it updated too!  

"The Journey Down" is a point 'n click adventure game, where chapter one is scheduled for a 2011 q4 release.

[Skygoblin]

Updating with some new pics! Work is moving along nicely, don't forget to check out the development blog:

[antymattar]

Looks amazing. I hope to see the end result. Is this going to bbe complete 3d?

[flavio]

It's very beatiful!

[Skygoblin]

Thanks for the encouragement, guys! I just updated the blog with some info about the voice cast, so be sure to check that out if you're interested in that aspect of game design!

antymattar: No, it will not be in complete 3d. In fact, it won't be in 3d at all. The characters, and some select animated items, will be pre-rendered 3d objects. But the entire game is 2D. (It's built in AGS)

[Helmeted]

Your Episode 1 prototype was great! Glad to hear your carrying on and making a bigger commercial game of it. Absolutely love the art.

[Scut Fabulous]

Congrats that your success is snowballing.  Keep on it!   

[Skygoblin]

Here's some new stuff from the devblog! I've started experimenting with the GUI design in the new HD version.
The new wide-screen ratio poses some new problems that need to be though through. Any comments are appreciated:)

Helmeted: Thanks for the kind words! Keep your eye's peeled on the blog for more artsy goodness:)

Scut Fabulous: Heh, I wouldn't call it snowballing success, as much as snowballing boneheadedness at wanting to make the project soar. But thanks anyways. I'm not surrendering any time soon. 



Follow our point 'n click goodness over at:

[Skygoblin]

Here's some new stuff from the dev-blog! Please keep the comments coming. Especially if you've played the prototype, I'd love to hear your comments on what we've released so far from the high-res release.

[Derek]

The new background art looks great! I hope that the 3d pre-rendered characters don't look too jarring on them.

Make sure you iron out all the typos in the text for this version - it really puts me off of text-heavy games when there are spelling and grammatical errors.

[Skygoblin]

Thanks Derek!

Making the 3d characters blend with the cartoony style of the backdrops will no doubts be a challenge. When looking at any other game that attempts to do so one gets ones hopes rather smashed, it's usually something that fails miserably, I must agree.

In my blazing naiveté though, I believe WE will somehow get it right, let's hope I can fool more people than myself that this is the case:)

Regarding spelling and grammar, I couldn't agree more. Every single line of dialog in the game needs some harsh slapping around before we can let it into this new release. This was by far the major critique we received from the prototype version and I have truly taken it to my heart. Thanks for reminding me though. 

I intend to let the high-res version have text activated by default even though we do have full voice acting. What do you think about that? I personally think text is very ugly but can truly be of help when a lot is going on at once in the same scene. Clarity needs to come first in and adventure game, I think.

[saint11]

Aweesome! Bring the point and click back to life! 
By the way, I LOVE the second image, like Derek, I hope the 3d characters blend well, that will surely be difficult.

[Helmeted]

I intend to let the high-res version have text activated by default even though we do have full voice acting. What do you think about that? I personally think text is very ugly but can truly be of help when a lot is going on at once in the same scene. Clarity needs to come first in and adventure game, I think.

I think that's for the best. Especially if you're using accents, some people have more trouble with that kind of thing than others. Also, it makes it less likely that someone will miss something due to distraction.

I think if subtitles are on by default people who'd rather not have them will look for a setting to turn them off, but if they're not on from the start the people who want them won't necessarily know that there's an option to have subtitles at all.

[Skygoblin]

saint11: Thanks for your encouraging words:) Yes, the 3d/2d blend will no doubts be one of the biggest obstacles to overcome in this project.

Helmeted: Yeah, I think your presumption regarding looking for the on/off feature. Thanks for your input there! I appreciate it a lot. If you've got any other thoughts I'd lvoe to hear 'em too! The more people voicing thoughts and opinions, the better.

Henrik (the animator on JD) just updated the blog with a first pre-render of our new fancy 3d characters. Please note that this is NOT what the final scene will look like. Lighting, shading and other fancy shizzles still needs to be put in place, also the backdrop is going to be animated and obviously there will be music and more sound effects. This is merely a sneek peak at a work in progress. If you're curious, check it out on the devblog through the link in this picture:



Also, here's your chance to listen to the wonderful voice of Anthony Sardinha, who is also cast for the role of Bwana.

Comments, as always, are appreciated! Thanks.

[Skygoblin]

We've just updated the devblog with a new voice sample, this time of the Dockmaster (Voiced by Scott Stoked). Check it below:



If you've got any thoughts about the voice cast so far, I'd love to hear 'em!

[Helmeted]

Sounds good to me. Keep 'em coming!

[Skygoblin]

Helmeted: Thanks for the comment! I'm glad you like it. I hope the rest of the cast will do the job as well!

Here's another new screenie from the devblog. I'm happily painting away on the new room backdrops while Henrik keeps playing around with our rendering pipeline. Mathias has started scratching his head delving into the spaghetti code of the AGS engine, and Markus is, well, busy with other things.  '



Man I'd love to give Bwana -the main character- unique frames in here sort of squeezing his body together against the cold. What a truly bad idea. 

Follow the devblog over at slxgames.com!

[Skygoblin]

Been doin' some more work on the backdrops to the intro!

Also there's a pseudo new post on the dev-blog about some of the new music, I recommend checking it out:)

[Helmeted]

Those links don't work, you've got and extra http:// and quotes, but I followed the link in your sig. 

That backdrop would make a nice wallpaper.

[Skygoblin]

Thanks for pointing out the error, man:)