Deeplake - Demo v 1.3 Released! 22/09/07

[Septimus]

Anyway, you can either change the name of the topic (by editing the first post), or just start a new thread with the new name.

Thanks for that information, I'll do that!

[musical74]

<a little late....> Welcome aboard!

This sounds like a very interesting premise. I'll agree with the others that it seems ambitious but if you are ready for that, it's definitely worth a good look =) Count me in on wanting to play it when you get it ready. I have a question for you: There are those of us that are on dialup. How big will the game be? To give you an idea of how long it takes me, it took...around 6 hours to download Elven Relations (82 MB) It's worth it because it's a great game, but still.....long DL time!

This looks very interesting....love to see it completed =)

[Septimus]

How big will the game be? To give you an idea of how long it takes me, it took...around 6 hours to download Elven Relations (82 MB) It's worth it because it's a great game, but still.....long DL time!

I'm sorry but I'm not sure yet, you can bet that the final product is probably going to be huge though. I'll be releasing each route when it's finished so you can download it one route at a time, that's probably your best bet. Even then though... Yeah, it's going to be one big game...

[DaFool]

Glad to see this moving along!

There are those of us that are on dialup.

Furthermore, being on dialup and sending and receiving resources is pretty inconvenient, if I'm not at work I'd have to go to an internet cafe. I've always thought that visual novels should be more efficient than any other multimedia format, so I design with low mb in mind. People forget that there used to be epic 3D games that run on DOS that are only a few mb (Descent, Duke Nukem, etc.)

[PyTom]

That's not true, though. You can procedurally generate a 3d game, allowing for them to be very tiny. Even in a traditional game, you have a map and some textures, and the textures don't have to be very big.

Compare this to a VN, where you routinely have 800x600 or bigger images, as well as music and other resources.

[DaFool]

Sorry for the OT... is it feasible to have a basic 3D engine (in python) integrated into Ren'Py, so that visual novel makers have a fallback 3D backgrounds generator? That would enable them to save on having to hunt good photos (since bgs take the longest). Not to mention the real-time render will make games even with a lot of bgs take up less space. Basically have Ren'Py pre-calculate and prerender the static 3D image as it is shown based on code... is this even remotely possible?

[PyTom]

Possible? Anything's possible. Likely? No.

Using 3d acceleration opens up a whole new bag of worms. Hardware acceleration worms with fangs on them and little back mustaches and dozens of users coming here asking why the game is running slow on their platform.

Not to mention it seems like a lot of work on my part for a feature very few people would actually use. If someone else wanted to do the work, I'd consider it... but I'm in no rush to make such a big change on my own.

(Honestly, I think the more interesting opportunity in the 3d space is 3d characters, like IDOLM@STER. But I'm not really in any rush to go there, either.)

I'll point out that with proper image design, you can fit a fairly substantial game in, say, under 4 megs of space, should you really want to. (Using compressable jpegs as background images, and doing stuff like replacing DejaVuSans with a smaller font, and so on.)

[Jake]

Not to mention it seems like a lot of work on my part for a feature very few people would actually use.

Not to mention that for notably less work on someone's part, the same thing could be achieved as a standalone program that took 3D scenes and generated flat backgrounds. Realistically, I rather suspect you'd have to have a lot of reuse of the same elements before BG size overcame texture size anyway, for similar-quality images.

[Sapphire Dragon]

Ok heres a rough design of the characters, ill be doing a colour version of this next so just hold on a little if you can't seen whats going off.

[DaFool]

Nice style.

Although, that's a lot of characters.

[Septimus]

Alright, time for names and quick descriptions. Those marked with a * have routes available. Okay, from the left:

Randolf Bennett: The resident watchman of Deeplake. He has a deep sense of duty, taking his job very seriously. He is also Eton's neighbour.

*Angela Kinsley: Daughter of the noble Kinsley family. Nobody knows exactly why she's living in a secluded place like Deeplake. It's especially strange that, apart from a single maid, she is living in a huge mansion alone.

*Nessa Bellamy: The aforementioned maid. She has been taking care of Angela since she came to the mansion when she was a child.

Richard Trask: A doctor living in Deeplake. He has a small clinic with limited supplies but it is the only place in Deeplake to receive proper medical attention. He believes that the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few and this leads him to make decisions he later regrets.

*Imogen Hartwell: A young resident of Deeplake that has been bedridden for an entire year with illness. She spends most of the time in Dr. Trask's clinic and hates being cooped up in bed. It seems that she's beginning to recover though when Eton arrives.

Edmund Grayson: One of the older villagers. Being retired, he looks after horses in his old age. He gives good advice and many other villagers ask him for it frequently.

(Below Edmund)
Henrietta Bennett: The daughter of Randolf the watchman. Henrietta always stops by Eton's store after school. She is quite cunning for her age and is always trying to use people, much to her father's dismay.

Jonathan Grayson: Edmund's grandson. He is always accompanying Henrietta, acting almost as her slave. When one of Henrietta's schemes goes wrong, it is usually Jonathan who is left to apologize.

(Moving on to the right...)

*Elie Harper: I don't want to say too much about Elie, she's the closest thing to a secret character that there is in the VN. By the end of the first week you'll see her true colours, that's all I'll say.

Eton Farman: The main character of the game and the one that the player will be guiding. He may have a kind face but don't be fooled, he'll do anything to make a profit. When he first arrives in Deeplake he just sees it as a stepping stone to becoming CEO of his family company. Of course, things don't always turn out the way you plan...

[Will continue in the next post...]

[Septimus]

[Continued from last post...]

*Tessa Claybrook: A nun at the Deeplake church. She doesn't act like a nun at all, a cause of many headaches for the priest. Eton notices that she has an annoying habit of knowing exactly what he's thinking most of the time.

Blake Elliott: The priest of the Deeplake church. He has been troubled by the lack of worshippers lately. It doesn't help that his only assistant is a nun that doesn't take the Lord's work seriously at all. He has a darker side, his absolute intolerance of those who he sees as 'evil'.

Aldrich Coleman: He owns and runs the blacksmiths opposite Eton's store. Sometimes he in unaware of his own strength and this interferes with his overly friendly attitude. Eton's first experience with him is not a very pleasant one... His hobby is forging weapons and he dreams of one day being commissioned to forge a weapon worthy of legend.

*Charis Coleman: Aldrich's daughter. She and her father often clash, although they share the same interests. She wants to carry on in the footsteps of her father but he insists that a woman cannot be a blacksmith. Due to unfortunate circumstances it seems that she doesn't like Eton very much.

Vanessa Moray: An outcast of the village, she lives in a cottage with her daughter. For some reason the villagers believe that she is a witch and have ostracized her. She is also quite ill and has to rely on her young daughter for care.

(Below Vanessa)

*Camilla Moray: Like her mother, she has been ostracized from the village. She spends most of each day outside, picking medicinal herbs. When Eton arrives he is the first person besides her mother who has ever spoken to her. She is unaware of many things in the world, never having had a chance to experience them.

(And the last character, at the far right...)

*Ruri: A mysterious foreigner in Deeplake who arrived a short while before Eton. She always carries two swords with her, but claim that they are only ceremonial. Almost every day she stands at the edge of the Deeplake itself, watching the surface silently.


Whew... Well there's a short description of all the characters. Now I've just got to finish the script. Once I've completed the first week and SD has finished the artwork then I'll release a demo. Look forward to it!

[YuMMz]

I am liking the preliminary information on this game. I do not play a whole lot of the games, but I will definitely play this one. Hope you can stay inspired . Keep us posted!

[monele]

That's a *lot* of characters... but they all seem quite well thought out so... I'm looking forward to this

[Sapphire Dragon]

ANd here are the characters with their colour scheme. Now this is done I can start doing pictures for in game use. So... what do you think?