Just to get the ball re-rolling because my last two posts (which by the way were due to Andrew sarcastically saying that the blog would keep him in the know about my eating habits and current feelings, chicken soup today quite nice - warm happy happy soup feeling) funny as they were, stopped our blog posts in their tracks.
So if you're done reeling around on the floor from that, I thought I'd put a quick post about this cool coincidence. Johnny did a search on Google for our blog - obviously no search results because I've hidden it from all prying eyes, top secret like ya know duh - BUT this is what came up on Google:
http://quantumperspectives.blogspot.com/2009/04/white-queens-strange-memory.html
Google search>>> curiousmalady.blogspot>>>
"The Queen finds this to be a curious malady, and tells Alice that her memory is certainly flawed!"
Note there's no search terms/ keywords for Alice in Wonderland there, it's just come up with Alice by coincidence. Isn't that cool!!?
It's such a cool title for the game: The Curious Malady of Eudora Fortesque
Hip Hip Hurrah!
Now then, how y'all doing? C'mon say something! Feelings? Eating habits? Let's have em c'mon!!
Thursday, 28 January 2010
Wednesday, 6 January 2010
Puzzles
Machinarium is awesome! If you guys can do something like that with Flash then hell yes definitely do it. I'm not going near the programming though. I still bear the scars from my last foray into games making.
Re: the payment options, I think we should offer the first bit of the game free, like they did, and charge for the rest. No one will pay for a game if they can get it for free.
That Alice casebook thing is really cool! I'd never seen that b4. Why don't we have a diary thing to complement the game like they did. That way we don't have to think how to incorporate it into the interface.
Re: Game design I think we should approach story and puzzles separately. Let's have some kind of brainstorming session to decide what shit we liked from the various stories/movies of this type. Then separately decide what we liked in terms of puzzles/gameplay in different GAs. Then afterwards we can slot puzzles into the story at appropriate moments.
We should also categorize puzzles in terms of style and difficulty.
Example:
Monkey Island had a lot of lateral thinking stuff like "How to get ahead in navigating"
Dig had more logical based stuff like square peg in square hole type stuff, and remembering sequences.
Sam n Max had more joke type stuff like using Max to beat people up.
We should also note the really frustrating puzzles that we don't want to include. Adventures like Myst were virtually made up of them.
And I think the first level should always be given away to get people hooked. Like the intro to Indy. Or at least make it really easy like Machinarium. That Alice GA was too hard too soon. I just stopped playing.
Re: the payment options, I think we should offer the first bit of the game free, like they did, and charge for the rest. No one will pay for a game if they can get it for free.
That Alice casebook thing is really cool! I'd never seen that b4. Why don't we have a diary thing to complement the game like they did. That way we don't have to think how to incorporate it into the interface.
Re: Game design I think we should approach story and puzzles separately. Let's have some kind of brainstorming session to decide what shit we liked from the various stories/movies of this type. Then separately decide what we liked in terms of puzzles/gameplay in different GAs. Then afterwards we can slot puzzles into the story at appropriate moments.
We should also categorize puzzles in terms of style and difficulty.
Example:
Monkey Island had a lot of lateral thinking stuff like "How to get ahead in navigating"
Dig had more logical based stuff like square peg in square hole type stuff, and remembering sequences.
Sam n Max had more joke type stuff like using Max to beat people up.
We should also note the really frustrating puzzles that we don't want to include. Adventures like Myst were virtually made up of them.
And I think the first level should always be given away to get people hooked. Like the intro to Indy. Or at least make it really easy like Machinarium. That Alice GA was too hard too soon. I just stopped playing.
Tuesday, 5 January 2010
Re: Example flash game with similar interface ideas
Very cool flash game! It reminds me of Samorost...
http://amanita-design.net/samorost-1/
http://amanita-design.net/samorost-2/
http://amanita-design.net/thequestfortherest/
http://www.samorost2.net/pantry/
http://samorost2.net/rocketman/
http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/ks2bitesize/games/questionaut/pop.shtml
Hang on!! It's cos it's by the same makers! :))
I've pasted a whole bunch of links above by the makers. I bookmarked all of their flash games a few months ago. Machinarium must've only just come out, yup says so on their site.
Here's our bookmarks on Delicious, have a rummage through:
http://delicious.com/KoojiCreative/flash+games
This guy releases a limited demo, maybe a couple of levels, then offers a download of the full game, for a price :D
We should discuss this later: is it a good idea to limit what is available to play, as many peeps won't want to part with their money...opn the other hand maybe they would....on the other hand maybe a Donations Box would be a good idea?
What dya all think?
Donations Box and full game available or limited demo and a fee?
http://amanita-design.net/samorost-1/
http://amanita-design.net/samorost-2/
http://amanita-design.net/thequestfortherest/
http://www.samorost2.net/pantry/
http://samorost2.net/rocketman/
http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/ks2bitesize/games/questionaut/pop.shtml
Hang on!! It's cos it's by the same makers! :))
I've pasted a whole bunch of links above by the makers. I bookmarked all of their flash games a few months ago. Machinarium must've only just come out, yup says so on their site.
Here's our bookmarks on Delicious, have a rummage through:
http://delicious.com/KoojiCreative/flash+games
This guy releases a limited demo, maybe a couple of levels, then offers a download of the full game, for a price :D
We should discuss this later: is it a good idea to limit what is available to play, as many peeps won't want to part with their money...opn the other hand maybe they would....on the other hand maybe a Donations Box would be a good idea?
What dya all think?
Donations Box and full game available or limited demo and a fee?
Example flash game with similar interface ideas
Check this out, it's so similar to what I'm imagining (except with our artwork and storyline etc of course). Play the free demo of it here: http://machinarium.net/demo/
I like how simple the interface is and also the fact it uses lovely illustration artwork. All it's missing is dialogue which will be important for the Curious Malady game.
Oh and this was done in Flash so it's a good showcase for that too :)
I like how simple the interface is and also the fact it uses lovely illustration artwork. All it's missing is dialogue which will be important for the Curious Malady game.
Oh and this was done in Flash so it's a good showcase for that too :)
Re: Interface Design
Yeah it has to be in an authentic victorian style, particularly the HUD so to speak. The environments can be quite freeform though since it's mean't to represent a chaotic hallucination or skewed reality. One big question is whether or not it should be pixel art or just fully illustrated? Personally I think a fully illustrated world would be more impressive to look at and would allow us all to go to town with our own individual styles of work.
Regarding the interface controls, we should keep it simple. I.e. not the full control set seen in Monkey Island (walk to, pick up, use etc etc) but a straight forward 3 or 4 options max. Walking about will simply be by clicking on the environment.
Another idea relating to bonus games, perhaps we could still incorporate a simple arcadey game when a 'boss' character is reached? So it becomes a simple shooter where u can blast the enemy from point of view. This wouldn't require fancy programming or much in the way of additional artwork other than the boss characters themselves.
Maybe it'll detract too much from the GA story telling so gimme your thoughts.
By the way, here's an Alice adventure game I found. It's a bit meh but still interesting to look at for research: http://www.kongregate.com/games/ImpendingRiot/alice-is-dead-ep-1
Regarding the interface controls, we should keep it simple. I.e. not the full control set seen in Monkey Island (walk to, pick up, use etc etc) but a straight forward 3 or 4 options max. Walking about will simply be by clicking on the environment.
Another idea relating to bonus games, perhaps we could still incorporate a simple arcadey game when a 'boss' character is reached? So it becomes a simple shooter where u can blast the enemy from point of view. This wouldn't require fancy programming or much in the way of additional artwork other than the boss characters themselves.
Maybe it'll detract too much from the GA story telling so gimme your thoughts.
By the way, here's an Alice adventure game I found. It's a bit meh but still interesting to look at for research: http://www.kongregate.com/games/ImpendingRiot/alice-is-dead-ep-1
Interface Design
K, following on from my last comment here: http://curiousmalady.blogspot.com/2010/01/adventure.html#comments I thought I'd start the ball rolling on what each of our thoughts are about how we'd like the interface to look. The GA / Choose your own Adventure/ Point and Click style game makes me think about the cool Ian Livingstone & Steve Jackson books and Knightmare books I used to read as a kid.
Here's what I said in my earlier comment about interface ideas:
* A Book as a nod to the CYOA Books
* Old Victorian Photo Album
* Eudora's Diary (think of Brian Froud's pressed Faery book - not girly at all - see here:
* Notebook - a medical notebook (maybe including some ramblings from Eudora's nurse) I think I'm thinking of the cool book that came with the American McGee's Alice game...yeah, that must've been what's made me think of that. Have a look at the casebook and see if it inspires you.
Download the Pdf of American McGee's Alice CaseBook here
* A mixture of all the ideas above?
An interface that looks Victorian is a must. Anyway, I'll keep letting the ideas tick over in my head. What do you all think?
Here's what I said in my earlier comment about interface ideas:
* A Book as a nod to the CYOA Books
* Old Victorian Photo Album
* Eudora's Diary (think of Brian Froud's pressed Faery book - not girly at all - see here:
* Notebook - a medical notebook (maybe including some ramblings from Eudora's nurse) I think I'm thinking of the cool book that came with the American McGee's Alice game...yeah, that must've been what's made me think of that. Have a look at the casebook and see if it inspires you.
Download the Pdf of American McGee's Alice CaseBook here
* A mixture of all the ideas above?
An interface that looks Victorian is a must. Anyway, I'll keep letting the ideas tick over in my head. What do you all think?
Cover art
Ok looking at the cover art from a couple of the best GAs I reckon (Ste) you could do a wicked cover for our game. Maybe if Katherine and I work on the titles and you could concentrate on the artwork?
Indy with voice acting
Here's a snippet from Fate of Atlantis showing the voice acting as well as some cuts to close up shots (in this case the statue being unlocked). This will totally work with our game.
Definitely!
YES! We were talking about the GA route years ago but were worrying about the animation but it would be miles better for telling the story. Backdrop art would be much more fun to work on than repeating tiles (as in scrolling platformers) and it'd be a blast writing a movie-like script.
Katherine and I already played about with some sound samples and voices for characters. We'll get them on the blog somehow so you can listen.
I know there's a GA maker out there but we'd really like to try in Flash as it'll be much better for the portfolios.
Ooh another thought, d'ya remember Sam 'n' Max? It had little bonus games, nothing particularly complex but fun all the same. Whack a rat for example. We could do this but in a more serious puzzle solving capacity. What do you think?
We need to get together with some paper to start writing out ideas for the GA route. Also we can start piecing together a more complete story.
I reckon each of us could take on different areas so that an area has it's own art style. We can get away with it since Eudora is meant to be seeing a twisted version of reality, hence a changing style would actually add to the sense of chaos. Thoughts?
Katherine and I already played about with some sound samples and voices for characters. We'll get them on the blog somehow so you can listen.
I know there's a GA maker out there but we'd really like to try in Flash as it'll be much better for the portfolios.
Ooh another thought, d'ya remember Sam 'n' Max? It had little bonus games, nothing particularly complex but fun all the same. Whack a rat for example. We could do this but in a more serious puzzle solving capacity. What do you think?
We need to get together with some paper to start writing out ideas for the GA route. Also we can start piecing together a more complete story.
I reckon each of us could take on different areas so that an area has it's own art style. We can get away with it since Eudora is meant to be seeing a twisted version of reality, hence a changing style would actually add to the sense of chaos. Thoughts?
Sunday, 3 January 2010
Adventure
Hello?
Is this thing on...?
Ok!
Right, I checked the vids. Well...vid. I could only get one of 'em playing. Looks cool tho. Would've rocked to have seen that on it's release at the cinema, eh?
Anyway, this entry is titled 'Adventure' because that game title is making me want to do a Graphic Adventure. It just screams of so many story possibilities that a hack 'n' slash just wouldn't do it justice.
Why am I suddenly all about the GA you may wonder. Well I saw a link to a Stargate GA that someone did that blew me away. Check this shit:
http://www.freehare.com/index.php?nav=games&item=review&id=43
I think we can do it easily. Unlike commercial developers we have no time limit so we could make the backgrounds as lavish as we want. (GA's are all about the BGs anyway) Well, that and story. And we've got so many story ideas. It would be a shame to see them all relegated to cutscenes which most people skip anyway.
But the bottom line is, truthfully, I wouldn't play a hack 'n' slash these days unless:
A) I'd made it.
or
B) It was a retro arcade that I felt nostalgically about.
And we want people to play it right? I WOULD play a GA though because nothing in the current trend of gaming has emerged to take it's place. There's a creative vacuum left by the departure of Lucasarts from that genre that needs to be filled. So let us be the ones to fill it muthafuckas!
Or not.
LMK wot u think.:)
Hey! I just had an extra thought!! Voice overs!! Talky adventures mofos! It would rock! I bet Katherine would dig doing a whole game of Alice acting, and we can all do some stuff on it. Anyway, something to think about.
Is this thing on...?
Ok!
Right, I checked the vids. Well...vid. I could only get one of 'em playing. Looks cool tho. Would've rocked to have seen that on it's release at the cinema, eh?
Anyway, this entry is titled 'Adventure' because that game title is making me want to do a Graphic Adventure. It just screams of so many story possibilities that a hack 'n' slash just wouldn't do it justice.
Why am I suddenly all about the GA you may wonder. Well I saw a link to a Stargate GA that someone did that blew me away. Check this shit:
http://www.freehare.com/index.php?nav=games&item=review&id=43
I think we can do it easily. Unlike commercial developers we have no time limit so we could make the backgrounds as lavish as we want. (GA's are all about the BGs anyway) Well, that and story. And we've got so many story ideas. It would be a shame to see them all relegated to cutscenes which most people skip anyway.
But the bottom line is, truthfully, I wouldn't play a hack 'n' slash these days unless:
A) I'd made it.
or
B) It was a retro arcade that I felt nostalgically about.
And we want people to play it right? I WOULD play a GA though because nothing in the current trend of gaming has emerged to take it's place. There's a creative vacuum left by the departure of Lucasarts from that genre that needs to be filled. So let us be the ones to fill it muthafuckas!
Or not.
LMK wot u think.:)
Hey! I just had an extra thought!! Voice overs!! Talky adventures mofos! It would rock! I bet Katherine would dig doing a whole game of Alice acting, and we can all do some stuff on it. Anyway, something to think about.
Alice in Wonderland 1933
I found this on Dailymotion while I was hunting for a trailer to embed on our blog for Tim Burton's version of Alice. It was made in 1933. What a find eh? What dya all reckon? It reminds me of the Wizard of Oz :))
Alice in Wonderland - Extended Trailer
Hurray! It's out on the 5th March 2010 - we should go see it in 3D :D Yippeeee!!
Saturday, 2 January 2010
Top Secret
"Oh, ho, ho, look at it roll! Now we can watch Jackie Gleason while we eat."
Hurray! Now we can all share our ideas and have everything all in one place. This blog is private, not searchable or listed by Google and it's only available to the authors. (That's you dum dum :P).
I thought it'd be a good idea to have this as a kind of journal so we can keep track of this project (which is on year six by the way and we've only just settled on a name!) plus every blog post is dated so we can see how long we've neglected it "Oh! Gosh, we haven't touched it for eight months."
It's not meant to be tidy, sod the spellings, (although a good grasp of grammar and punctuation are always a sign of intelligence right kids? :D There's nowt girly about checking ya stuff on Google and besides I like to spell pho-ne-ti-ca-lly :P) it's about pushing ourselves to keep playing with this idea, to boost our portfolios, to keep on top of our skills, to sit around pub tables and talk about all the fun things we can make!!
It's dead easy to use Blogger read this if you need more info:
http://www.blogger.com/features
So go on! If you have any ideas you want to note down, links you want to share (or don't want to lose in a swamp of unarchived emails) or ask for our opinions on anything just shove it on here and it'll be dated.
Psssst...don't forget it's all private this blog ;)
Hurray! Now we can all share our ideas and have everything all in one place. This blog is private, not searchable or listed by Google and it's only available to the authors. (That's you dum dum :P).
I thought it'd be a good idea to have this as a kind of journal so we can keep track of this project (which is on year six by the way and we've only just settled on a name!) plus every blog post is dated so we can see how long we've neglected it "Oh! Gosh, we haven't touched it for eight months."
It's not meant to be tidy, sod the spellings, (although a good grasp of grammar and punctuation are always a sign of intelligence right kids? :D There's nowt girly about checking ya stuff on Google and besides I like to spell pho-ne-ti-ca-lly :P) it's about pushing ourselves to keep playing with this idea, to boost our portfolios, to keep on top of our skills, to sit around pub tables and talk about all the fun things we can make!!
It's dead easy to use Blogger read this if you need more info:
http://www.blogger.com/features
So go on! If you have any ideas you want to note down, links you want to share (or don't want to lose in a swamp of unarchived emails) or ask for our opinions on anything just shove it on here and it'll be dated.
Psssst...don't forget it's all private this blog ;)
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