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Re: [WIP] Adrift

Posted: Wed Mar 23, 2011 6:17 pm
by Machus
Ah, missed it, sorry.
Looks good!

Re: [WIP] Adrift

Posted: Thu Mar 24, 2011 11:49 am
by PyTom
Taleweaver wrote:For Erika, I wasn't sure whether I should give her glasses or not. After all, ADRIFT is set in the far future; would people still be wearing glasses then?
I don't see why not - IIRC, there's a scene in Wrath of Kahn where Kirk is given a pair of glasses.

Re: [WIP] Adrift

Posted: Thu Mar 24, 2011 3:00 pm
by Taleweaver
PyTom wrote:
Taleweaver wrote:For Erika, I wasn't sure whether I should give her glasses or not. After all, ADRIFT is set in the far future; would people still be wearing glasses then?
I don't see why not - IIRC, there's a scene in Wrath of Kahn where Kirk is given a pair of glasses.
...but... but that was the 80s! THE EIGHTIES!!!11one

*ahem*Seriously, I still think we should keep the glasses. It makes Erika look really cute and nerdy. Your approval has only confirmed my gut feeling. Anybody speaking out against the glasses?

Re: [WIP] Adrift

Posted: Thu Mar 24, 2011 4:14 pm
by sake-bento
The hook for this is crazy interesting, and I like your writing, so I am very much looking forward to it. With regard to Erika, I think that people will still wear glasses in the future. Many people choose to wear them today as fashion statements. I have contacts, but I still opt for glasses regularly. Laser surgery is getting more affordable, but there will always be people uncomfortable with the thought of laser surgery or who just prefer glasses. Since the people of this city are poor, they're probably even less likely to receive surgery, especially for a non-life-threatening condition.

Re: [WIP] Adrift

Posted: Thu Mar 24, 2011 5:25 pm
by Taleweaver
sake-bento wrote:The hook for this is crazy interesting, and I like your writing, so I am very much looking forward to it.
Yikes. There's something I haven't mentioned yet: Because of the complexity of this project, I am aiming for a late summer release - August or September. So you're going to have to curb your curiosity for a little while... or rather, I have to keep you all updated on our progress so that you don't lose interest until it's all done.

I'll try to give you a status report at least twice per week, which means I'll try to work at the game at least a few hours every week. I really want to make this as good as I possibly can, so thanks for the early round of applause. I'll do my best to meet your expectations.

Re: [WIP] Adrift

Posted: Thu Mar 24, 2011 7:25 pm
by mangakaluna
XD I honestly think Erika looks better with glasses, haha XD
/megane love

Re: [WIP] Adrift

Posted: Thu Mar 24, 2011 8:16 pm
by LVUER
About glasses, I think one sci-fi game also mentions about glasses. The protagonist wonder why a girl still wearing glasses in this space age, where you could easily get a eye-correction surgery. In fact, the protagonist doesn't know what is glasses since he never see it before.

Re: [WIP] Adrift

Posted: Sat Mar 26, 2011 12:05 pm
by Taleweaver
Update! I think this thread is becoming my "developer's blog" after all...

Finished the first complete Erika scene (though it's a short one) and straightened out some odds and ends in the movement and event system. There are now two different mechanisms for handling events that are tied to a specific location and for those that are tied to a specific character (or combination of characters). Another way would have been to set up events like characters, but I'm already messing around with too many different variables and don't want to lose the big picture. Also, I need to start making backups soon. I'd hate to lose everything I did so far...

I don't really have any new art to show, but here's an example of how the Supervisor might be able to perceive stuff around Bluetide:
A thermographic image of... something.
A thermographic image of... something.
This is something seen through the thermographic sensors of one of the robots. Of course, this makes interactions a little... tricky. The first part of ADRIFT will be mainly about interpreting the situation on Bluetide correctly from the limited reconaissance that is possible... and then doing the hopefully right things.

Re: [WIP] Adrift

Posted: Sat Apr 02, 2011 3:23 am
by Taleweaver
Oh dear, so many days without an update to this entry! Let's just say I had an interesting week, which, however, did not deter me from working on the script some more!

Three out of four girls now have their first scene, and there's some more interaction with the world already. Several mechanisms necessary for the later game work properly now, and I can pretty much have the end of Act 1 in sight.

Sachiko is the last person I need to implement, but her first entrance won't be very difficult to do (unlike Minako's, which was a hassle as Minako isn't exactly the most cooperative person in the world...). Then it's a few more event elements, four story-transfers (one for each girl), two early endings (one really bad, one half-bad...), and then I'm through with Act 1 and can concentrate on making the story paths branch. A lot. :)

I'm also seriously considering an animated intro scene even though I'm no good with art and stuff (and I don't have any experience coding animation in Ren'Py), but this is a task I will tackle during the late stages of ADRIFT.

Re: [WIP] Adrift

Posted: Mon Apr 04, 2011 12:10 pm
by Taleweaver
Holy update, Batman! It's me again with some more news on Adrift!

Let's start technical:

Code: Select all

The game contains 944 screens of dialogue.
These screens contain a total of 10,257 words,
for an average of 10.9 words per screen.
The game contains 21 menus.
All four female leads now have their introductory scene, and I'm almost done with their interactions until the bridge to Act 2. Erika and Hinami already have their roads completed, Minako and Sachiko are next. The first (bad) ending is also now implemented, a very early ending which represents the player botching literally everything. I think I found a pretty neat way of making Adrift feel very much like a classic adventure without losing the VN character; I'm almost inclined to ask mangakaluna whether she's willing to design a graphic interface for navigating Bluetide...

Speaking of graphics, I'd very much like to release an early demo of the game, maybe as soon as Act 1 is complete, which will definitely happen somewhere over April. Unfortunately, the current version has nothing but placeholder art, and I won't release anything with placeholder art any more. ("The Dreaming" still haunts me in that respect...)

Aside from that, there's not much new to report. Adrift is well and growing, and I'm confident that this will be my best release so far. Stay tuned for more news here, and don't hesitate to give me any feedback you want!

Re: [WIP] Adrift

Posted: Fri Apr 08, 2011 2:35 pm
by Taleweaver
Not dead. Just... busy.

I have visitors this weekend, so my work for Adrift will have to wait a little.

I've also receive a very interesting offer which I'm probably going to take and which will give me more to do as soon as this project is complete. Sometimes, shouting out loud really helps :)

Re: [WIP] Adrift

Posted: Mon Apr 11, 2011 3:25 pm
by Taleweaver
Artwork update! Today: Character art you're never going to see in the game. At least not in this form.
Off-color Hinami
Off-color Hinami
This is a version of Hinami with a different color set than the one she'll have in the game. The reason I'm posting it is to give you a tiny look at mangakaluna's excellence as a manga artist. With this level of skill, Adrift is going to be the best-looking game I've been directing so far, and I am VERY motivated to make this my best game as a whole as well.

By the way, this thread is starting to look a little deserted if I'm the only one posting anything here. I know I said I'd use this as a dev blog, but don't hesitate to comment on the job mangakaluna and I are doing. We both appreciate all sorts of feedback!

Re: [WIP] Adrift

Posted: Mon Apr 11, 2011 3:34 pm
by mangakaluna
Taleweaver wrote: The reason I'm posting it is to give you a tiny look at mangakaluna's excellence as a manga artist. With this level of skill, Adrift is going to be the best-looking game I've been directing so far, and I am VERY motivated to make this my best game as a whole as well.
dhajkfhadjk >u</ Thank youuu <3

Re: [WIP] Adrift

Posted: Mon Apr 11, 2011 7:45 pm
by pondrthis
For some reason your plotline reminded me of an old point-and-click adventure called "Beneath a Steel Sky".

It was a feat of science-fiction storytelling... and involved neurointerfacing which allowed a human (and later an AI interfaced with an "empty" human body which was in turn interfaced to the master control) to control the city.

Re: [WIP] Adrift

Posted: Tue Apr 12, 2011 1:30 pm
by Taleweaver
pondrthis wrote:For some reason your plotline reminded me of an old point-and-click adventure called "Beneath a Steel Sky".
My actual inspiration for ADRIFT is even older than that - Suspended, a text adventure by Infocom. No artwork whatsoever. Text only. A parser you interacted with by formulating sentences. That's right, you typed what you wanted to do. And it was awesome.

ADRIFT will have a VN-type interface, of course. But the basic idea is very, very old.