I'm excited by the fact that I have about 9 more supporting characters to ink/color and then I'll be done. Then I can lay them all out on a couple of height/weight character sheets to play with their proportions a little and make sure they're all of the appropriate height.
I really appreciate it Gets discouraging when you're in the bowles of painting characters in Paint Shop Pro and want sleep more than art.
I can only dream of making that dragon surfing piece a stage one day. I have a piece of music in my head I'd want to go with it. Who knows, if this first game gets me off the ground, I may be able to attempt it.
Barring that, I'd like to take a crack at doing a painting of it at some point.
As an alternative to scoring the game myself I've been looking at licensed and royalty free music. Some pretty good musicians out there are willing to contribute music for credit. Thinking about this at the moment.
This one actually took longer to make because of the greater amount of detail, less curved (unbroken) lines, and the need to realign facial features, add hair, etc. A few hours work but I think the final product is good.
I should also say I've found a composer who has an extensive free library of music that I am seriously looking at now. It would mean the difference of months if I didn't have to do the background music.
Let's take a minute to discuss the reality of what that means. With the soundtrack being handled and taken care of, that leaves me to focus on the art work (my strongest suit). The supporting cast will be finished this week and that will mean the only thing left to finish (from a first stage of production perspective) will be the backgrounds. Let's set a timetable for the end of April for all backgrounds and characters, since it will probably take me two to three days per background piece for inking and painting.
I haven't unveiled any of the main cast and probably won't until we're coming close onto summer. The main cast will be fully finalized after the backgrounds. With 8 characters, only two of whom need full animation/interaction animation, that will take another two month. So if there are no setbacks we're looking at the end of May for the finalization of the main cast.
What that means is that in June the script will be written out. This is actually my strongest area, moreso than the art, because my background is in writing (I've worked for companies like Blizzard Entertainment).
Let me give myself, say, two months. That would put us at the end of July, since the script itself is based on one of my old rejected children's books.
It would put us in August. And then, the big decision would be whether or not to record lines for this.
Of course, this is a very idealized timeline. However, I can absolutely foresee this being done by the Winter. Fingers crossed.
You could always release a non-talkie version first, then if you want make a talkie version afterwards.
(It would be kind of traditional too, as many adventure games had two versions, due to the introduction of CD-ROMs)
What's bugging me is that I'm aiming for as high a production value as I can. I want to be as far away from amateur as I can be in this... I mean the characters alone are actually pretty killer to get from sketch to painted, and they're not even done in terms of shadowing and proper color.
I think though I may just take your advice and see what the response is, and if people like it, then I'll do the voiceovers.
Excerpts of scored tracks. Not all of these will be used necessarily. If you'd like to post feedback on a particular track, please note the time when the track occurs in the video.
The pieces in that sampling aren't the only ones I'm using. About half don't fit my motif.
There are some pieces like this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E8eWY-zvAg0
That I want to have in game but we'll see how it comes together.
Establishing a development blog for public purposes and generating some interest. It will essentially ape this thread but the blog is for the general public. Will begin displaying pictures there tomorrow.
This character was really way too detailed and took far too long. In game he will NOT be doing a lot of motion :P I'll save that for simpler characters.
Comments
@Darth Thanks. Progress per colored piece is still painfully slow but we're still knocking out 1-2 a day.
But, you do have a good style.
This is me dreaming about an end product.
I also dream of pirates.
Playing with titles.
I can only dream of making that dragon surfing piece a stage one day. I have a piece of music in my head I'd want to go with it. Who knows, if this first game gets me off the ground, I may be able to attempt it.
Barring that, I'd like to take a crack at doing a painting of it at some point.
Promo video. For those of you who tl;dr on the thread. Tell your friends!
This one actually took longer to make because of the greater amount of detail, less curved (unbroken) lines, and the need to realign facial features, add hair, etc. A few hours work but I think the final product is good.
Only 7 more supporting characters left to color!
Let's take a minute to discuss the reality of what that means. With the soundtrack being handled and taken care of, that leaves me to focus on the art work (my strongest suit). The supporting cast will be finished this week and that will mean the only thing left to finish (from a first stage of production perspective) will be the backgrounds. Let's set a timetable for the end of April for all backgrounds and characters, since it will probably take me two to three days per background piece for inking and painting.
I haven't unveiled any of the main cast and probably won't until we're coming close onto summer. The main cast will be fully finalized after the backgrounds. With 8 characters, only two of whom need full animation/interaction animation, that will take another two month. So if there are no setbacks we're looking at the end of May for the finalization of the main cast.
What that means is that in June the script will be written out. This is actually my strongest area, moreso than the art, because my background is in writing (I've worked for companies like Blizzard Entertainment).
Let me give myself, say, two months. That would put us at the end of July, since the script itself is based on one of my old rejected children's books.
It would put us in August. And then, the big decision would be whether or not to record lines for this.
Of course, this is a very idealized timeline. However, I can absolutely foresee this being done by the Winter. Fingers crossed.
(It would be kind of traditional too, as many adventure games had two versions, due to the introduction of CD-ROMs)
What's bugging me is that I'm aiming for as high a production value as I can. I want to be as far away from amateur as I can be in this... I mean the characters alone are actually pretty killer to get from sketch to painted, and they're not even done in terms of shadowing and proper color.
I think though I may just take your advice and see what the response is, and if people like it, then I'll do the voiceovers.
I wanted eyes that reminded me of an animal. A horse or doe. Not sure I achieved it. May edit it later.
Excerpts of scored tracks. Not all of these will be used necessarily. If you'd like to post feedback on a particular track, please note the time when the track occurs in the video.
The pieces in that sampling aren't the only ones I'm using. About half don't fit my motif.
There are some pieces like this
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E8eWY-zvAg0
That I want to have in game but we'll see how it comes together.
http://thegoldenanvil.blogspot.com/
Is it scary that I was thinking the same exact thing but didn't post that?
One of the best things about BS is its visuals and music.
First pass/test on a talk sheet. Not the final one, just a test to see how fast a three frame talk sheet could be done. This took roughly 20 minutes.
Track test. Once again, the audio quality is bad, but only in the demo here. Actual source file is of absolute clarity.
Just for fun. Keeping track of the game's images.
Oh, you can also tell how many supporting characters that need to be inked/colored by looking at this :P
This character was really way too detailed and took far too long. In game he will NOT be doing a lot of motion :P I'll save that for simpler characters.
GRANNY RETURNS! Now with adjusted legs... but no less insane looking.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LNt3dNc_cNM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=joas6cC0iBE