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So I have another project I will be working on over the next few months.
It's being developed using my ElfScript platform. I always wanted to work on games so this is exciting for me and I know it's a good project idea because I can't get to sleep for all the ideas I keep thinking of for it.
In brief it's like interactive fiction. Similar to those old 80s text adventure games where you interact with the game using text. It's not going to be slavishly like those though as there were plenty of things about those old games that made them frustrating.
With ElfScript I can add a plethora of features and have smarter NPCs (Non Player Characters). It will be web based so in much the same way as you study chatbot logs I can adapt the scripts and story as I go along.
(https://i.imgur.com/RqJwji7.jpg)
One of the other things that I always wanted to do is a graphic novel - and this game will have plenty of illustrations like above - I spent a wad of cash on loads of graphics resources in the Black Friday sales, so I have plenty to work with.
It's also a lot like an RPG game, the pencil and paper sort I used to play when I was younger. So the character will face combat and puzzles and there will be some simple game mechanics going on there, dice rolls, stats, skills and so on.
The games will be set in the 1920s and in the world of H.P.Lovecraft, the writer whose genre was supernatural horror. There is so much material to draw upon and I've always found his work fascinating.
This feels like the culmination of all the work I have been doing over the past decade or so. Everything seemed to come together the past week or two for this project. I come up with ideas and I realise I have the solutions at hand. I think of something I want to make and I now have the skills. That is very good for my confidence.
I will update this thread as I go along. Thanks for taking a look :detective:
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That's exciting! Good luck.
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Thank you :)
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Your virtual character looks great. I know this a.i. thing gets a little extreme, sometimes maybe its good to just pretend nothing much is going to happen.
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Thanks Goaty, I dabble in weak AI really, but it's a lot of fun :)
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Its good to have a project to get your teeth into on these dark cold damp nights.
So... A web based 1920's, Gangster (ish), supernatural horror/ graphic novel, RPG, interactive fiction based on the genre of H.P. Lovecraft... this will be interesting, I look forward to seeing its progress with antici........ pation.
:)
Ed: I only just got the Innsmouth reference lol.
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Yes, I am always at the computer more at this time of year.
You pretty much summed the project up ;D
I have no idea how long it's going to take me, but I am keen to put time into it over the coming few months.
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Ed: I only just got the Innsmouth reference lol.
Yep! I bought the domain innsmouthgames.com as a base for the games - I was a little surprised it was available. It's not the most direct reference to Cthulhu Mythos, but fans will get it.
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rrrk Fnag'h
O0
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;D
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Ok! I just spent moments of my life, that I will never get back... google'in rrrk Fnag'h... I hate to miss owt.
https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Fhtagn
:)
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hey Korr :)
Did you notice the "Get a Fhtagn mug" offer on urbandictionary?
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What a unique mug's back:
https://urbandictionary.store/products/mug?_sp=9e2ebe98-16a4-43a2-bfb9-a42c9d0aaa6d.1576145430482&defid=5448147&utm_campaign=onpage&utm_source=define&utm_medium=web
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I got distracted away from this project with other things, but since I have all this time indoors I started to play with it again.
I am experimenting with the art style. I wanted to make it more sketchy. Here's a few examples, what do you all think is the best direction?
Remember it's all about the supernatural and the occult type stuff.
(https://i.imgur.com/5jDUGny.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/52bbyZL.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/ZydS15X.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/iq6zeMu.jpg)
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The last three images are rather indefinite for my taste - the main character doesn't come to light. The first one looks the most professional to me, but it looks the least sketchy among them. Maybe you could play with the third one from the top, it kind of looks promising, regarding to the sketchy and occult requirement.
Of course, when an art comes to deal, impressions are personal, and each human has a different taste. Don't pick up what you assume others would like. Pick up what you find the coolest, and you won't make a mistake.
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The last three images are rather indefinite for my taste - the main character doesn't come to light. The first one looks the most professional to me, but it looks the least sketchy among them. Maybe you could play with the third one from the top, it kind of looks promising, regarding to the sketchy and occult requirement.
Of course, when an art comes to deal, impressions are personal, and each human has a different taste. Don't pick up what you assume others would like. Pick up what you find the coolest, and you won't make a mistake.
I know what you mean with the unclear features - this could be fixed in the process. Typically I had not saved the first one, but was able to make something that is sort of an aggregate of them all.
Different situations will call for different solutions. I like the general look of this one though.
(https://i.imgur.com/Cj9G0d7.jpg)
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This specimen is pretty awesome to me. I liked how a single drawing style seamlessly blended over different illustration elements. If only contrast between the detective and background could be better, but even this way, the more I look at it, the more I like it. The illustration has some underground mood i dig. Dark colors could match the occultist theme.
(https://i.imgur.com/ZydS15X.jpg)
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I also like the third one from the top, out of your original four options. If you keep the dark orange/sepia background but bring some of the colors back in to the main character and his clothes, I think that would do nicely. (Your aggregate version also looks pretty good to me.)
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Thanks for your observations, I'll keep playing with it, but I agree something between the dark one and towards the aggregate one look like the way to be going.
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I also like the third one from the top, out of your original four options. If you keep the dark orange/sepia background but bring some of the colors back in to the main character and his clothes, I think that would do nicely. (Your aggregate version also looks pretty good to me.)
I tried that and I quite like it - this brings the flesh, tie, shirt and other colours back.
Looks pretty good with a dark background, which is what it will be used on: https://innsmouthgames.com/
(https://i.imgur.com/ioC53qX.jpg)
Side by side:
(https://i.imgur.com/zw895JK.png)
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At first glance, it looks as though he doesn't have a thumb but once I made out a faint outline, I noticed some lines that normally wouldn't indicate natural thumb creases.
His right eye seems to be almost closed compared to the original.
Perhaps a foggy ball of light emanating from his right hand but not blurring the rest of his body so much. Perhaps from his palm downward and outward, gently illuminating the rest of his body & face but not so much as to obfuscate all the details.
Of course, this type of artwork, as mentioned, is very subjective. So far so good.
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I think it's okay that some things don't look well defined. The brain tends to fill in things like that - I hadn't picked up on the thumb, but the eye a little.
Think of this as me searching for a style that people like the look of - I don't know if I will use this exact same image in the game so far.
All art is subjective, all art is also quite useless. Points for the reference!
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Playing some more with the graphics. I think I am going to go with the darker look that we seem to like.
What do you guys think of this?
(https://i.imgur.com/h7b6FYv.jpg)
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A period gun, the M1917 revolver.
(https://i.imgur.com/0BMpwva.jpg)
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This is how it looks in game at the moment. I am still experimenting with how the game interface will look.
At the moment, it's like a baize desktop. I will be making icons and things to go on it too.
So far I have the text box with an old typewriter font and it plays a typing sound when it's printing. The images come up on the right. I have the text box showing the history of the chat, but I'm not sure if that's really needed.
(https://i.imgur.com/W58j0p8.jpg)
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A better version of the gun I feel.
(https://i.imgur.com/5xGzaW1.jpg)
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Maybe it needs some texture? Some sort of weathering.
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I felt it looks sort of old already. Don't forget at the time it would have been a new gun.
I've soon realised that I needed to set something up to handle all this new stuff. So I have started a new forum here:
https://innsmouthgames.com/forum/index.php
I'd like to invite anyone interested to come join me over there. :)
The game will be free to play, it might be donation supported perhaps - to help pay for things needed along the way. There's also a call for contributors, so if you enjoy writing fiction then maybe think about it. Full credits given in the game and on site!
In a couple of weeks I am aiming to have a demo running, with just a few locations, just to see if things work right and to get feedback on the game in general.
I'll post updates here, but the majority of the time it will be over there now. I will still continue to update progress of the ElfScript engine.
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Working on the interface, I had a suggestion that the typing output might look good on old paper.
How does this look?
The top bit is chat history, the larger text is the current response. You can see I got the dice working now too :)
(https://i.imgur.com/NdBe6uS.jpg)
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The text looks much better on this. Maybe the paper needn't be quite that deeply tea-coloured though, maybe mushed, like someone slipped you a note. The text does need a bit more spacing left and right. The photo with shadow looks great, but the background is still a little too monotone. Maybe you could have a shadow loom over a corner, or make the surface less pristine, some discoloration where the dice are if that is the main use of that spot. The dice look very real (I assume you'll give them shadows later). Excellent work.
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Thanks Don, that just the kind of feedback I needed on this O0
Maybe the paper needn't be quite that deeply tea-coloured though, maybe mushed, like someone slipped you a note.
Yes, I think you are right - the way it is now is probably more appropriate for a medieval scroll or something - I have several backgrounds like this, so I will experiment - I could just lighten the one that is there now too.
The text does need a bit more spacing left and right.
Yes with the new background the text does look a little cramped.
The photo with shadow looks great, but the background is still a little too monotone. Maybe you could have a shadow loom over a corner, or make the surface less pristine...
It has a light shadow there around the edges at the moment - it probably doesn't come across so well in the screen shot, but the background has a baize type texture applied to it. I could try increasing the side shadows to give the impression it is under a spot light.
The dice look very real (I assume you'll give them shadows later).
Great! I rendered those in Daz Studio. I'd like a shadow there too yes.
Excellent work.
Thank you very much :)
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Try this. I increased the side shadows of the table top, but I reached the max. There could be more elements on the table top, so it might not be a problem later on. I may have a character sheet on there too.
Otherwise I think all your observations worked out well, thank you :)
As for the log (the text above the larger text) - I'm still undecided if I need to have that there.
BTW, I reduced the width of the browser to make a smaller screen shot.
(https://i.imgur.com/GVclk9r.jpg)
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I would only see a need to keep the user's previous text until the next comment or command is entered. At that point, the previous text would be overwritten by the new.
Perhaps the User could have access to his/her Log Book for fact-checking or memory jogging. The Log Book would disappear once they've finished with it.
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Looks good. I think the dice would stand out even more with a sharper shadow, like the photo.
If you don't want the log on screen you could just add an upward arrow at the top that people could click to scroll back to the previous text. However, this being a text-based game, I would think that keeping the context on screen helps keep people in the story? What I do know is that it makes for more interesting screenshots, having PR in mind.
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Okay both your comments taken into consideration, thanks.
I will note that it only shows the last 1-2 responses depending on how long they are. So it's sort of the best of both. It auto scrolls up as you go along - you can see that a scroll bar appears beside it when it fills up. I think having that might be a good memory prompt. For now I will leave it as it is I think. Also it's sort of emulating a typewriter which is nice as it plays a typing sound when the text is being printed (one letter at a time).
Don, I thought that about the dice shadow too. I adjusted that as per screenshot below.
Edit: Added another screenshot as I found a way to increase the side shadows, so now it looks more like a light is shining on it :)
By the way, the dialog is not final, it's just me writing stuff as I go along to test things.
(https://i.imgur.com/r6XgPA4.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/tJJpXgh.jpg)
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I've got an alpha demo up and running if anyone feels like giving it a quick test.
More information here: https://innsmouthgames.com/forum/index.php?topic=16
Thanks :)