[Galladin]

Uh...I've lost the count on how many projects I've started...but one thing I know; the number equals to the amount of games I have not finished.

There are still a couple of ideas I work on every once in a while, though I suppose I'd need some inspirational help from other people who would like to work on the projects.

Anyhow, let's cut the crap. My current projects that still have some hope are, as follows:

DEVIL'S MIND
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THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UNDEAD
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NIGHTFALL
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Oh and maybe Dragonbreed. Maybe.

Now let's see how these things work out. I've got one person who could maybe do the soundtrack for Devil's Mind, which I consider as my main project at the moment. Jauhis has also been giving lots of ideas and mental support for all of these projects, by anyways...I hope I finish something. Something more than a demo.

[Micah]

I came.

[Sai'ke]

Sweet screenshots man!

[Seventh Shade]

I love every single one of those screenshots. That third Devil's Mind screenshot is just

This post has been edited by Seventh Shade: 28 June 2007 - 07:32 PM

[weasel]

I want Devil's Mind. Holy crap.

[Val]

Actually, I don't really like the screenshots that much.

Almost nothing has a background color. It's all some color on black.

This not only makes things pointlessly contrasting, but also makes it difficult to tell things apart.

[CJA]

Great art style, but yeah, I have to agree with Guy about the sprites.

[Galladin]

Devil's Mind is actually progressing nicely...I took use of many engines from the DoZ game, they work quite well with the style of DM.

Instead of displaying the players health in numbers, the Inventory screen only displays "Healthy", "Slightly Wounded", etc. I'll take a look into adding a Fatigue meter as well, of course affecting the battle actions if the player is exhausted or something.

About the graphical style...well...I DID use background colours in Dragonbreed, but the thing is that Dragonbreed characters were all white at 2x2 scale. Now, in Devil's Mind for example, Edward is 3x4 and with 3 colours on different body parts (head = yellow, jacket = light brown, trousers = deep brown). I thought it looked messy with background colours.

Besides, since the beginning, I wanted Devil's Mind to have a rather dark look on it, but I guess that for the other games I have no excuse whatsoever. Some of these days I'll try adjusting the colours and adding some to the background. Thanks for the feedback.

[Goshi]

Guy, on Jun 29 2007, 06:55 AM, said:

Actually, I don't really like the screenshots that much.

Almost nothing has a background color. It's all some color on black.

This not only makes things pointlessly contrasting, but also makes it difficult to tell things apart.

I don't mind that too much. But on The Good, The Bad and The Undead; it does make the game look quite bland.

[djtiesto]

Yeah, those screenshots look really freaking sick!

[Pancake]

Now, you've done a VERY nice job on the chars in my opinion, but I agree with Guy, add some background. And also with Goshi on how The Good, The Bad, and The Undead boards looks kinda boring.

This post has been edited by Commander Pancake: 29 June 2007 - 03:21 PM

[Exophase]

Excellent shots, looking forward to these.

[klinger b goode]

Looks nice! What is Devil's Mind? An adventure game with a combat system? Kinda reminds me of The Hound of Shadows or Laplace's Demon.

[Galladin]

klinger b goode, on Jul 2 2007, 03:55 PM, said:

Looks nice! What is Devil's Mind? An adventure game with a combat system? Kinda reminds me of The Hound of Shadows or Laplace's Demon.

Sorry for the late answer.

Yep, Devil's Mind is an adventure game, where you play Edward Langley, a young special detective (Metropolitan Police, Department of Paranormal Defense) who starts investigating a couple of murders...

I took the inventory engine from my last DoZ game, and now I am working with the battle system.

I'm not sure whether I should use a normal battleboard, or maybe go for a kind of a 1st person battle system, which would be more original. The battles, however, are not exactly the main part of the game, as the player may die quite easily.

[klinger b goode]

That sounds pretty sweet. Looking forward to hearing more about it as things develop.

[Galladin]

Horror...here's some screenies from the current battle system...





On the upper left corner you can probably see the "red dude", which actually represents the level of damage that you have received. When the figure is completely red, you're dead. There is no way to cure yourself during the battle, since the only curing items in the game are the first aid kits (which only cure one level of damage). Neither can you access the inventory in the middle of the fight (have you ever seen anyone starting to calmly investigate his backpack in the middle of a combat situation? ), so keep your pistol equipped when you think there's gonna be a fight ahead.

Right next to it there are the icons representing the Fist-fight, Shoot, and Escape actions, and their hotkeys (so, to change between the melee & pistol, you just have use the number keys, while fighting with the right hand and the mouse).

The green bar is the hit gauge. For example, when using the pistol, you will have to move the mouse in horizontal line to select between the enemies. Then, when you've got one in the crosshair, just hold down the left-mouse button, and lift your finger when the gauge bar is full. Of course, you can shoot with the speed of light if you wish, but you probably won't hit the enemies, as the shots more or less start hitting when the gauge is midway full (depending on the enemy, if its an elephant, don't worry...).

At the moment it's quite easy to shoot down the enemies, but it gets a bit more difficult when there's 3 of them. Anyways, I'm not planning to give the pistol in the beginning of the game.

[Galladin]

I also found a good 19th century map of London (here), although the Buck's Row has already been renamed to Durward Street (I hope the other streets have not gone through name changes).

I was planning to make a rough map of what is more or less the neighbourhood of Whitechapel, but I'm not sure whether the player should be able to freely walk from other street/area to another, or should he use the map to "transport" himself to a different location in a baldursgateish style. Any ideas, people?

The game starts from the apartment / lodging room of Edward, where the player will be introduced the game interface and some other things (maybe a place where to store items, as the player can only carry 8+2 items). Then he probably will be heading to the Police Headquarters, by navigating on the streets OR by selecting the destination from his map, depending on the final transport system (another idea is to walk around in the nearby streets and then take a cab or train to travel the furthest destinations). Then comes Buck's Row, which is where the first murdered woman is found...first of the many, some of which were later known to the public as Jack the Ripper victims.

More to come...

[Galladin]

I added a Defend option to the battle-engine, it works with the right mouse button, but ONLY if you're fighting with your fists (giving at least a tiny weeny little reason to use fists; works well against 1 opponent, but no real use when there's many enemies trying to hit you)...also, I tried to work out the map idea, but no real progress there yet.

I did some brainstorming over the weekend and the plot is slowly taking shape. More to come soon.

[Galladin]

The only enemies I've done so far are the so called wererats.



Now, I'm not sure if I should tweak the aiming rates a bit. At the moment you have to max the gauge to be able to hit with the fists, while the pistol hits more or less at the midway, and is far more effective. I was thinking that maybe I should make the fists easier to hit with, but only causing 1 pt of damage. Another thing is that I want to make the fighting rather difficult...just...because. Because.

Anyhow, I'm starting to like the battle-engine...it's quite fun actually to just go on a killing spree.

[Goshi]

You seem to be quite a fan of black space. It looks nice and old school though but there's better ways to make use of the empty space.

[Galladin]

Goshi, on Sep 10 2007, 09:36 AM, said:

You seem to be quite a fan of black space. It looks nice and old school though but there's better ways to make use of the empty space.

Racist.

It's still unfinished, do not worry!

[klinger b goode]

at least he's actually making something! something that looks interesting too, no less.

[Galladin]

Added some new functions to the battle, and added the bullet & money system too.

Current battle controls:

Numbers 1-2: Change weapon
Number 3: Escape (you may try three times during 1 battle)
Left mouse button: hit / shoot
Right mouse button: block / reload

Now I'll start working on the map thingy, and maybe try to change the palettes, and add some background colours.

[Galladin]

Here's a screenshot of the current game map. You select your destination with the mouse, for example, if you're travelling by (horse) cab you could name one of the bigger streets, and if you're moving by train, just select one of the 4 stations located in the game area.

[Galladin]

Edward's room at Osborn Street's lodging house.

In Edward's room you have the bed where to cure up to 1 level of wounds, you've got the wooden chest bearing his father's letters, J. L. (that's where you can store items you don't want to carry with you), the table with the microscope to investigate clues and the notebook, where you will be able to write quick notes (in the form of strings) for future, etc...

[Galladin]

Woah nice, all the screenies are gone for the moment. Anyways...

First of all; thanks to the useful help of WildWeasel and Jauhis, I have been able to change some things and improve the quality of the game...it's starting to look quite promising.

The dialogue system is slowly taking shape. I've decided that the dialogues will be done in it's own board, displaying the faces of both Edward and the person he's talking with. This way I will be able to add lots of depth into the speeches, instead of just one or two sentences in a message row.

I'm also working on the intro and changing slightly the plot.

I also managed to rip some awesome (as in, really, really awesome) music from one of my favourite PC games, Arcanum. Long live violin music.

Let's see what's next.

[Galladin]

A screenshot of the preliminary dialogue system.

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[Galladin]

How about some change in the background colours?

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[KKairos]

That = pretty.

[Galladin]

I finished the "intro cutscene" and two boards over the weekend at the summer house, although I am not completely happy with the intro neither some graphics at one of the playable boards...I find it surprisingly difficult to draw Victorian era housetops at the sides of a street that goes in a vertical line.

I also hope I will find someone to collaborate with the plot / storyline, for I prefer to have various points of view, and also because I am not a native English speaker.