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TIGSource ForumsCommunityDevLogsAmnesia
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superflat
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« on: September 28, 2008, 10:36:31 AM »

Hi everyone,

I'd like to use this as a sort of worklog for what could be quite a long project.  I've just registered www.superflatgames.com with lots of bandwidth, and I'll be adding a developer blog there soon.

Right now, all there is to see is this image (sorry, it's big - prob better to look on the site):



Anyway, here's the blurb:

Amnesia is a game I've wanted to make for ages... It's in a pre-production phase and has changed from being a classic point'n'click to more of a Survival Horror title, partly due to the fun we had making Soundless Mountain II, and the fact that I now have a great artist to work with, 'Lord' P. Duncan.  The story is essential the same as the point'n'click I imagined, though - it's about a Japanese man called Aruku re-discovering his identity through dreams and nightmares, in a recurring Groundhog day.  Solving puzzles 'positively' will give you a piece of a jigsaw puzzle that is white, solving them 'negatively' will give you a red puzzle piece.  When the puzzle is assembled you will regain your memory, although the ending depends on the makeup of your physical jigsaw puzzle. 

It deals with the theme of isolation from society so present in modern Japan (I lived in Tokyo until recently.)  In fact we hope to really tackle some issues about modem life with this game, the distance and loneliness people can feel even when surrounded by others.
 
Visually we're using what we call a 'Moving Mosaic'.  This is our tech term for chunky, grainy, dirty hand-drawn pixels with lots of noise and filtering.  As well as this we have dynamic 3D shadows, so the torchlight will be spectacular!  It still is very self-consciously low-res pixel art, but with a modern twist, scaled up 4 times as in SMII - although it is in a higher resolution than SMII and with no colour restrictions.  We're using 3D cel-shaded characters, with a slightly Prince of Persia feel to the moment.  There will be a lot of 'being chased' in the game, and you'll have to escape this unkillable antagonist time and again by any means necessary, pulling obstacles in his path, cutting rope bridges etc.  Dreams will range from flying to escaping a filthy prison, and that's all I can give away at the moment!

Update:

We're still debating what resolution to do the game, but the platform we've settled on is XNA, so make of that what you will!
 
Feel free to check back for occasional progress updates, and I'll let you know when we've sorted out the website.

Cheers,

superflat
« Last Edit: September 28, 2008, 10:54:26 AM by superflat » Logged

Terry
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« Reply #1 on: September 28, 2008, 10:59:25 AM »

I look forward to hearing some updates! Sounds like a very promising project Smiley

It's a pity you're going down the XNA route though - I probably won't be able to play it as a result Sad
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Annabelle Kennedy
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« Reply #2 on: September 28, 2008, 12:11:17 PM »

sounds very exciting! although..

It's a pity you're going down the XNA route though

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Alex May
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« Reply #3 on: September 28, 2008, 12:31:21 PM »

Not sure why more games don't use Groundhog day as a basis for gameplay, seems perfect to me. Looking forward to hearing more.
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« Reply #4 on: September 28, 2008, 12:36:47 PM »

Sounds awesome. Hopefully XNA will be easier to deal with in the future. Thinking of a possible XBLA release then?
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« Reply #5 on: September 28, 2008, 05:35:50 PM »

Will the game be in Japanese too? I ask because of the アムニージア bit.
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« Reply #6 on: September 28, 2008, 07:58:24 PM »

Horror, Groundhog Day and Jigsaws. Oooh, and a noisy, grungy pixel style.

Nice to see another big project pop up. I will, as usual, follow this closely. Sounds good.
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deadeye
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« Reply #7 on: September 29, 2008, 11:30:52 AM »

I liked the sound of this project when I read your interview on Destructoid.  Looking forward to hearing more Beer!
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« Reply #8 on: September 29, 2008, 11:41:40 AM »

Hi there, thanks for the encouragement TIGSource crew!  Lots more details to come, just waiting to finally get a desk in my new house tomorrow.  Then development officially begins...

Re: XNA, I know it's got a lot of issues, but by the time the game is out I think most of them will have been resolved, looking at MS's plans to allow the developer to include the necessary libs in the executable in XNA Game Studio 3.  I hope so, anyway!

The thing is, it's seems to be the framework that's closest to he middle ground between 3D and 2D.  It was a toss-up between that and Ogre, where I'd already written a fairly robust framework.  Ogre provides OSX / GL support, XNA provides the potential to play on a console.  XNA is definitely simpler, and easier to implement 2D elements in.

Re: Japanese - my dream is to have it in Japanese with subtitles only.  I might be able to find seiyu through contacts in Japan.  It's still a long way off in the decision process though.


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« Reply #9 on: September 29, 2008, 12:00:39 PM »

Braid Ripoff
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Zaphos
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« Reply #10 on: September 29, 2008, 12:52:06 PM »

I love the sound of this project!  And to echo haowan -- the Groundhog Day idea is a lovely basis for a game, so that's cool to see Smiley

Also GeneralValter, that's just obnoxious.
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deadeye
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« Reply #11 on: September 29, 2008, 12:53:43 PM »

Braid Ripoff

Can I suggest we only do this kind of stuff in crappy threads from now on?  This is a good thread, it doesn't deserve this sort of treatment.

Re: XNA, I know it's got a lot of issues, but by the time the game is out I think most of them will have been resolved, looking at MS's plans to allow the developer to include the necessary libs in the executable in XNA Game Studio 3.  I hope so, anyway!

I hope so too, so far the sum total of XNA games that run reliably (or at all) for me is exactly zero.
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« Reply #12 on: September 29, 2008, 09:33:24 PM »

Re: Japanese - my dream is to have it in Japanese with subtitles only.  I might be able to find seiyu through contacts in Japan.  It's still a long way off in the decision process though.

Wow, even more ambitious than it originally seemed. Hope you guys pull it off! What you've shown looks good so far.
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« Reply #13 on: September 30, 2008, 02:17:03 AM »

Well done big bro, this thread will help motivate you through the process.

I love this concept, and want to be invloved with any help you need as much as possible. This game will get released, we'll make sure of that. Wink
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superflat
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« Reply #14 on: October 09, 2008, 12:35:43 PM »

superflat Log, Date: 9/10/08

I'm starting to get to grips with XNA, but it's by no means a walk in the park.  3D-wise, I've only really used Ogre and Blitz3D, and only mildly dabbled in shaders in Ogre.  XNA is lower-level than Ogre in most ways, but then again C Sharp is higher level than C++, this means less stress with pointers and free garbage collection, but I have to learn shaders from the ground up, and re-write a lot of Ogre's functionality.

The good thing is that shaders use the industry standard .x format, none of Ogre's proprietary stuff to deal with, and I can test things out in RenderMonkey without having to re-code them.  Also, luckily, most of the stuff I want to do has been done already in XNA, shadows and cel-shading in particular, although skeletal animation support is non-existent out of the box and there seems to be little online knowledge about it (although I'm looking into XNAnimation...)

I've got the first model by my artist, Lord P.Duncan, and boy is it a beauty (you can see him in the background of the website image.  We call him The Bully.)  I've plugged him into the cel-shader and shadow system and he's looking fine, fine, fine.  The time is not right to post him yet though...

I have the odd cabinet projection working too (think Final Fight perspective), that wasn't a bit of a headache because I had to re-learn about projection matricies.

The next step is to get skeletal animation up and running, and the overlaying of shadows back onto a 2D image (should be one line in the shader with any luck.)

I've also written what may end up being the main musical theme, it's orchestral, kinda Zelda-ish but dark and foreboding, with only a thread of hope in it.  Look forward to playing it to you guys many moons from now! 

superflat out. Gentleman

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« Reply #15 on: October 09, 2008, 06:46:36 PM »

Shocked WTF

WANT! NAO!

This looks awesome! Congrats for doing so much in less than two weeks Beer!
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superflat
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« Reply #16 on: October 13, 2008, 02:22:50 AM »

Hi everyone,

I've started a development blog over at: http://www.superflatgames.com/wordpress

There's also forums up for testing: http://www.superflatgames.com/phpbb3.

Come and show my site some loving!

Cheers.
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« Reply #17 on: October 13, 2008, 05:49:24 AM »

Registered on your site Beer!
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superflat
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« Reply #18 on: November 26, 2008, 03:52:05 PM »

Hey more news about the project on the blog.  Link below.  Also come and say hi on the forums if you like!  Not that I want to poach anyone away from my beloved TIGs! 

Gentleman
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« Reply #19 on: November 26, 2008, 07:16:44 PM »

Ha, I checked out your blog link, but i didn't bother to read the most recent entry, so I thought the Tempo screenshot was one for Amnesia. :D I'm, like, 'this totally does not fit the description!"

Good luck w/ XNA, you're breaking new ground for indie developers everywhere.
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