Yeah, I played that old Jamagic demo a while back. One of the old Indie game award winners(or maybe honorary mentions) was a black and white, too. It was a fps and was made to look like a pen and ink drawing. The Fatal Frame games on PS2/XBox also have some B&W parts.

This is an informational post instead of a screenshot one. There's been a major shift with this project.

I've toyed with it many times before and have decided once and for all to convert this project from a survival horror action adventure to a straight point & click(PAC), inventory based, heavy on the story adventure title.

The player will still be controlled via the keyboard or a controller, but if a satisfactory PAC pathfinding script with perfect object avoidance ever comes my way, I'll implement it as an option. That way, the player can choose the game mechanics style that suits their taste. As of right now, the PAC component will involve the selection of items. The cameras will go through an overhaul, as well. Less swooping around and more fixed point fun.

Adventure game fans are starving for something new and different. There are plenty of adventure games, but there are few good stories to go along with them, and a well told tale is what drives the genre. I think I can have great success with that target audience.

Anyway, this is the last post from me in this thread(apart from responding to anyone who responds to this one). Whenever I make some progress, I will start a new one, so I can have a fresh start. Thanks to all who posted in this one, and to all of the silent onlookers who may have some interest in The Disenfranchised.

Hi Bratman,

Maybe some one has already said this but, before you toddle off and create a cool new adventure game. Take a look at Grim Fandango from Lucas Arts.

The film Noir style you are developing reminded me themactilly of Grim Fandango, now that you are heading to a full blown adventure, maybe there is some good concepts you can gleam from that game.

Gamasutra stated the Sam and Max development group has left Lucas Arts after the game had been cancelled because of a precieved lack of interest by gamers in the adventure genre. Sometime lack of interest in a genre gets confused with lack of quality products in the genre.

I look forward to seeing what you can come up with, exploring those cool scenes you have been creating is excatly on target with me. Heck if there is a mystery or two to solve that would be all the better.


Ken

Funny you bring up Grim Fandango. I was just thinking about reinstalling it. It has similarities with my own. Both are set in the Noir era. Both feature direct controlled characters. Both are adventures. Grim is a comedy, whereas mine has little...mainly dry and subtle, so that's one difference.

As for Lucasarts cancelling Sam & Max 2 and Full Throttle 2...well that's a shame, but the facts don't back them up. The Syberia games have sold hundreds of thousands of copies and a game called Runaway: A Road Adventure sold around 400000-500000 in the last year. Alot of these sales are in Europe, however.

I said I was going to start a new thread for any future official news, but I don't see the point given the bittersweet subject(and no I'm not quitting ).

I've decided to leave 3DGS behind and move on to a new engine to continue development on The Disenfranchised, and I've decided to use the Wintermute Engine for that purpose. It's dedicated, 2D adventure game authorware, and it fits my game like a glove. It features a scripting language, as well as, a wide assortment of functions that are specifically built for the genre. It has a full suite of realtime GUI editors, and the next free update will add 3D object support, so if I wanted to do a Syberia/Syberia II or Grim Fandango(alternate site: http://www.ninth-world.com/) style game, I could. I'm kind of up in the air on that one. Full 2D or not full 2D?

With all this said, I'm still going to hang around the forum and answer questions(if I can), and I'm still going to use WED for prototyping and SED for the script editor(gotta remember not to press F5 ). I'll continue to update everyone on my progress, since I'm still using 3DGS, but I'll move it into a new thread like I mentioned last time. So, for the second time...this thread officially comes to a close(except answers to any questions).

If you are going to be working with a 2D engine - pick up a book (or grab one of the Loomis books from online http://www.saveloomis.org/ and learn perspective techniques. He does a great job introducing things to you - and after that, just play with it a bit.

With a real 2D engine you can do some fun things with 2 and 3 point perspective that are nearly impossible with a 3D engine. Definately would help with the style of game you are working as well (allow you to get those comic book camera angles).

It's been a long while, but perhaps it's time for a small update. Some have probably already figured it out, but the project never left 3DGS. There was nothing wrong with WME, but I miss the freedoms of realtime, and the game I've been pounding on forever will be best experienced in that way. Someday, though I'll probably work with that engine.

The Brat site is long out of date, but it is going to be getting an overhaul. The colors and graphics will remain unchanged(except for some tweaking), but the layout will be changed and it will be much more accessible and mainstream in nature. I pretty much know what I'm going to do, and it's just a matter of me to stop being lazy. The game site has been reverted to a teaser and will remain that way until I decide to relaunch the PR machine. It'll probably remain as it was, designwise.

I've done next to nothing in the past few months, on level design, but have been working almost exclusively in c-script. I've mananged to complete most of the tasks I have planned, but I have a few still remaining(like this). There was also a bit of burnout during this time, but I've pretty much gotten back into the swing of things.

My main goal, at the moment, is to have an actual "game" running when I test. That means, a frontend, a UI, semi-complete player animation and physics code, gameplay/mechanics options, all hotkeys and ingame menus in place, and a few other "global" features(meaning not level specific but game specific). A lot of this is in place, but needs polishing, tweaking, and tender loving care.

My secondary goal is to have this thing done by this time next year. That's not going to be set in stone, but I'd like for it to happen. Once I get these basic scripting duties out of the way, it will be time to get serious with level design, again, and more than likely I'll need a modeller/animator to help me out on that end. I'm not too concerned about that, as of yet.

Enough jabbering...back to work.

the screenshots look's good.
and when comes the game out?
Soon or when it's done!

--------
beegee

That's cool (I was wondering if we'd see another update) and I like your new avatar, Grim Fandango was an excellent game.