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[Grog]

As Wind Waker is one of my favourite games of all time, and parkour is a big part of my life, I'm quite excited for this. Can't wait to see some further gameplay!

[knifeySpoonie]

Ha this is a really cool Idea, I loved windwaker also so will be keeping an eye on progress.

[Mr Underhill]

Came here 'cause I saw  your screenshot on one of the screenshot saturday pages. I love the faux-greek island setting, and the characters are great. They remind me a little of the 90s 3d french adventure/action adventure games. Gonna be following your development! Best of luck 

[oahda]

YES! ARDOMANIAN. CONSTRUCTED LANGUAGES.

This is getting even better! Really pretty script too. The first few number characters remind me of the Arabic ones (the Latinate numerals are often referred to as "Arabic" too, but they aren't identical).

Do post some input in the conlangers thread if you have any. c; And if you're feeling ambitious, and the language actually has some nice developedness to it, it would be great to see you with a detailed thread on grammar, phonology and the like over in the conlangs section of the CBB, a forum dedicated entirely to this sort of stuff.

This kind of stuff isn't seen done properly nearly enough in games (Skyrim's language isn't a proper conlang, for example; it literally is English with the words replaced but 99 % the same grammar and phonology rather than something in its own right – I really hope that doesn't go for Ardomanian, so that's why I reeeeally would like some more detailed info!).

You can of course just post it here too, but I think more people would care over at the CBB than over here. ;p

You are aware that there is a natural language called Aromanian, btw?

Anyway, I am squeeing the sparkles out of me. Pls. Moar.

[8-Bit Ape]

This looks sweet! I really like how the character follows objects. I've also been working on a cel-shaded Blender / Unity project and it's nice to see someone else doing something similar. How long do you think it'll be before you have a demo?...

[Henry_Oswald]

Status update. I know we've been pretty dead as of late, but we're just now getting back on track. My and my partner are now back in school where we can easily talk to each other, making focusing on this way easier. Goals for February include finishing Herreth's animation set and getting an over the shoulder toggle added to the camera. I'm putting off working on Fay for now to get the essentials out of the way. To be honest, I'm feeling Fay is going to need a third re-haul. Things are either poorly optimized or boring, so I'm going to go back to basics and do a few paint-overs. Thank you all for the awesome words and for sticking with us procrastinating louts!

You are aware that there is a natural language called Aromanian, btw?

No way! That's either awesome, or it's a prime example that humans have reached the point where we have exhausted all possibly ideas. Thanks for referring me to the colangs place my the way. I'll swing on by and check it out.

This looks sweet! I really like how the character follows objects. I've also been working on a cel-shaded Blender / Unity project and it's nice to see someone else doing something similar. How long do you think it'll be before you have a demo?...

I cannot promise a demo for a bit. As I said, I plan to have something playable where you can run and jump and everything looks nice by the end of this month. That is if school and work permit me to. 

Again, thanks everyone! I'll try to keep you all posted as stuff goes down.

[Henry_Oswald]

I've been poking our animations for the last couple of days. Once again I touched up the walk and this time around I added a run that doesn't look as gross as the last one. Click below for birds doing things.





I've also added another lesson to our series in Ardomanian. This one is on simple, everyday phrases, as well as formality and informality. I've already gotten the next one all nice and prepared, so you should see some nonsense on punctuation in a week.





Finally, here's part of a "menu" I've been working on. We'd like a lot of things to be managed from a journal that Herreth keeps with him, and in a perfect world you can sketch in it too!

https://twitter.com/PsychoSpecs/status/595265536050778113

Sorry about all of the links. My gifs keep breaking and I have a ton of videos to post about. Bask in the glory of my text for now.

[oahda]

You need to show us the romanisation (a transcript of the native script into Latin letters) of Ardomanian too. And preferably phonetics in IPA.

Still endlessly excited about some devs actually working properly on something like this. I realise now that I didn't ask the obvious question: how will the language be intergrated into the game? Voice acting with textboxes in English?

Hard to determine the animations without an environment really, so that'd be good to see. Book looks very good!

[Henry_Oswald]

Oh shoot! I totally forgot about romanization! Yeah, that would probably make things easier for people. I'll try to follow up with IPA as well, but my knowledge of it is a little rusty, so no promises.

As for integration, I've had a couple of thoughts. What I really want to capture with this project is the feeling of traveling alone in a foreign country, so Ardomanian and any other hand made languages that appear will be very prevalent in the environment for sure. Any text (signs, books, menus, etc.) will all appear in some language other than English, and any conversations you would hear on the street would be in a Quill language as well. As for story related dialogue, I'm split between three thoughts.

My first thought is that, as you said, we go in with full foreign dialogue and English subtitles. This would almost simulate watching a foreign film, which would be totally awesome, however, I'm afraid that not everyone would get into it the same way as I would.
My second thought was to have all story dialogue in English. This would probably keep the player's attention on the story and dialogue at a high, however, my problem with this is that it wouldn't make much sense in the context of the game. The protagonists are being subjected to a new world where almost no one speaks their language, so it wouldn't make sense to have all of the dialogue be directly understood by the protagonists and in turn the player.
This has led me to thought C, integration of both English and Quill languages. Basically I've been thinking that the story dialogue would be told in English, but only at times where the protagonists would understand the language that they are speaking. For example, when the protagonists first arrive in Ardoman, all conversations held with Ardomanians would be in Ardomanian. Then, after some time frame has passed in the story, let's say a year, story conversations held between the protagonists and Ardomanians would be in English. Maybe a few Ardomanian words could be tossed in here and there to symbolize that the protagonists have an understanding, but not a full understanding of the language that they are speaking. If at any point a new language were introduced, I believe that the same kind of situation would have to play out.

Wow that was a lot. I hope I made sense there.

[oahda]

Well, I was thinking Zelda players and others are used to reading everything anyway, with a few sound effects, so foreign voice acting could be those "sound effects".

But it's up to you!

[Henry_Oswald]

Well, I was thinking Zelda players and others are used to reading everything anyway, with a few sound effects, so foreign voice acting could be those "sound effects".

I really like this thought. I think it would be a nice subtle way to fit the language in. I think I was just making things way too complicated. 







Here's another Ardomanian lesson for you all. In this one we begin to discuss punctuation. Since I'm trying to make this a weekly thing I think this will be the last time I post updates on these lessons here on tig. If you would like timely updates on them, feel free to follow us on Twitter or YouTube.

Actual game stuff should be coming soon. It's finals week over here so I haven't had a lot of time to work, however, Summer shall soon be upon us and things shall be made. Stay tuned.

[Henry_Oswald]

Hello everyone! Quick update on our progress once again with a bit of biggish news as well.

Since the start of the summer things have really kicked off. This past week I've been working on cranking out a new character model and my partner has been working diligently on his wall of code. Ardomanian lessons are on hold for now until I can get something nice to capture my screen. I most recently moved to a new computer and apparently FRAPS doesn't support Windows 8 so well. Whatever though. That's a pretty fine trade off for updated graphics support .

Additionally, we have started searching for new additions to the team. With I, Griffin, making all of the 3D assets, I thought it would be wise to seek out a professional 3D animator. This brings me to my biggish news, an ad. I've posted this in the business section of the forums as well, but I thought I'd bring it over here too for good measure.


Hello and welcome. Psycho Spectacle is seeking a talented 3D animator for its current project, Quill. Created with the Unity 3D engine, Quill tells the story of Herreth Jzal, a daydreaming librarian cast from an isolated society into the wild and ever changing world around him.

Currently our team consists of three members:

Project Manager/Character and Environment Artist
Story Writer/Programmer
Programmer

We have been working together for almost three years, though our relations go back far. Because of our minimal size we have been searching for new additions to the team in hopes of spreading out tasks more evenly. We feel that in order to progress further and more efficiently, we will need the help of a professional 3D animator.

This is our first project we have worked on and we are determined to make it the best it can be. For those interested in the position, please contact us at [email protected].

Thank you very much for your time, and we look forward to hearing from any future applicants.


Thanks for coming by once again! I hope to send you all more updates in the near future.

[Henry_Oswald]

Here's the guy I've been working on for the past week. Just a few more tweaks and I can start texturing. Hopefully I can get the fabric to work the way I want. This design is pretty dependent on it. 

[jctwood]

This project and your enthusiasm toward its world is hugely inspiring. I thoroughly enjoyed the first in the Ardovirdi language videos! Cannot wait to see this evolve and wish I had animation talents in order to apply for a position within the team.

[Ege]

Here's the guy I've been working on for the past week. Just a few more tweaks and I can start texturing. Hopefully I can get the fabric to work the way I want. This design is pretty dependent on it. 

this model looks pretty stylized and detailed compared to main character i would use this one as main character model but i dont know anything about the game so not sure if thats by design

[Henry_Oswald]

this model looks pretty stylized and detailed compared to main character i would use this one as main character model but i dont know anything about the game so not sure if that's by design

I think the matter is just that the other character meshes need to be re-hauled a bit. It's been a while since I made them, so I'll probably need to give them an update. Thank you for pointing this out! It would have been a while before I saw the difference on my own.

[Henry_Oswald]

Here's another guy to add to my arsenal of characters. He's this gruntish soldier guy. I think I may add a few extra details onto the textures, but other than that I think he's done apart from getting the cloth to work. Woo!

Oh, and we also have a Tumblr now. Follow us and stuff!
http://psychospectacle.tumblr.com/

[Henry_Oswald]

So here's how that cloth has been coming along, personally I like it, but there's this problem I keep having where the back and front don't really match up. I honestly just think that's a parenting issue or something. Also, the middle bit wiggles like jello.


With inner fabric enabled.


Without inner fabric enabled.


I think for the moment I'm going to step away and make some props for a bit, but I'll definitely be coming back to this later.

[Greipur]

I really like the character design, but I'm curious to see more work on environments.

[Henry_Oswald]

Here's a fresh batch of vases. Tomorrow we add color!