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Doomsday Lost Echoes - Released and now with Physical Edition

Started by ||C|-|E||, 00:18, 31 July 15

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MiguelSky


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#26
Sooo... the development goes on with the great help of Gryzor and dthrone :) . The texts of the locations are finished and corrected, the objects are already placed in the map, you can move through the map and pick/wear them... and we are finishing with the puzzles (writing them on paper, not actually coding them). There is lots of work to do, actually most of it, but in the meantime I can show you a couple of graphs from the game. We still do not know if they will be included in the adventure as they are now, but still, we hope you will enjoy them  :D .

[attachimg=1]

[attachimg=2]

[attachimg=3]

[attachurl=5]

Kris

If you plan a french version, then I would be a part of the translation team ;)

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#28
Thank you very much!!  :D

Let´s see about the translation when the game is finished. It thought that it would be simple to translate it but I guess that I was wrong. We started with a simple story but it is much more complicated now (Gryzor knows something about this  :-\ ) and I will have to squeeze the database quite a lot fit the game in the TPA of CPM/Plus. I don´t know if a translated version will be possible or not, it will depend on the final size of the file  :) . The good news is that I think that it will be a nice challenging game with different endings and side stories!


Gryzor

Are you talking about a single version containing different languages? Because if there were different versions size wouldn't be an issue...

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Nope! a single version with different languages would be completely impossible  :D :D . The english-only game is big enough to be problematic to fit  :D .

Gryzor


talrek

If you are interested, i can of course translate it to French ;-) it won't be very difficult  :P
Just take your time ;-)

||C|-|E||

Thank you very much! There is still a long way to go until the game is finished though, I think that it will easily take more than one year  :D

FloppySoftware

Quote from: ||C|-|E|| on 18:54, 19 September 15
I will have to squeeze the database quite a lot fit the game in the TPA of CPM/Plus.

CP/M Plus?  :)

It would be possible to build a PCW version?  :)
floppysoftware.es < NEW URL!!!
cpm-connections.blogspot.com.es

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Yes! It should be almost 100% compatible. A text-only adventure game should run in PCW straight out of the box, but if you want to display graphics it would be necessary to patch the adventure for the PCW. That is the only difference, porting it should be almost trivial and our graphics work pretty well even in a green phosphor screen  :)

FloppySoftware

Quote from: ||C|-|E|| on 15:55, 21 September 15
Yes! It should be almost 100% compatible. A text-only adventure game should run in PCW straight out of the box, but if you want to display graphics it would be necessary to patch the adventure for the PCW. That is the only difference, porting it should be almost trivial and our graphics work pretty well even in a green phosphor screen  :)

I think too that graphics shouldn't be a big problem.  :)
floppysoftware.es < NEW URL!!!
cpm-connections.blogspot.com.es

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Not difficult at all, PCW graphics patch is available  :) . The only difference is that you need to patch the game separately for the PCW and the CPC. I do not know about converting the graphics to a suitable PCW file format, I am using ConvImgCPC for the Amstrad :) .

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#38
I was checking now and, actually, the images work very well in greyscale, as PCW likes  :) . You lose some atmosphere, but still.

[attachimg=1]

[attachimg=2]

[attachimg=3]

[attachimg=5]

Bryce

Quote from: ||C|-|E|| on 22:23, 21 September 15
I was checking now and, actually, the images work very well in greyscale, as PCW likes  :) . You lose some atmosphere, but still.

They're pictures of outer space, they shouldn't have an atmosphere! :D

Bryce.

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Quote from: Bryce on 22:28, 21 September 15
They're pictures of outer space, they shouldn't have an atmosphere! :D

Bryce.

Oh my, that one was really bad!  :-\ :P

Bryce

Quote from: ||C|-|E|| on 22:32, 21 September 15
Oh my, that one was really bad!  :-\ :P

It's Monday and it's late. What do you expect?  ::)

Bryce.

robcfg

It's not an atmosphere, it's the cockpit's tinted glass...  ;D


Your game art is stunning! If you need help with the PCW port, I'm sure Habi (author of the CP/MBox emulator) will be more than happy to help you.


Keep up the good work!

TFM

TFM of FutureSoft
Also visit the CPC and Plus users favorite OS: FutureOS - The Revolution on CPC6128 and 6128Plus

Habi


Amazing artwork, indeed!

Quote from: robcfg on 22:46, 21 September 15
If you need help with the PCW port, I'm sure Habi (author of the CP/MBox emulator) will be more than happy to help you.


Of course I will! Just let me know if you need some help. ;)

||C|-|E||

Sure! In principle porting it should be straightforward. I mean, you do not need to port anything besides the graphics. PAWS interpreter is a native CPM application and it should be able to work with a database written for the CPC. The graphics are different, they need to have the proper format before the game is patched, but creating them from the GIFs should be an easy task. At least for the CPC is completely trivial :).

Gryzor

These images in B&W have a new character oof their own. Lovely!

||C|-|E||

I am pretty sure that they will look great in the PCW screen :)

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#48
Time for an update! (a long one, indeed)

We have been working quite a lot during the last few weeks but we made good progress :) .

First, with the invaluable help from Gryzor we went through the plot more than three times and it improved really a lot since the first version. Initially there was only a way to play the adventure, but we have three different endings and three side stories now. Two of the side quests just provide additional lore that explains what really happened in the derelict space station, however, the other side quest is essential to see the true ending of the game and involves interaction with an NPC. In principle, completing the game without the side quests should be easy enough with a little bit of patience, the most complicate puzzles are, by far, in the side missions. Regarding the puzzles, we tried to make them as logic as possible, avoiding the classical random trial and error present in many of these games. Needless to say that there will be a score system that will allow the player to check his progress at any time during the adventure.

Regarding the code. I have already introduced most texts in the database, including the description of the locations, the messages that would be needed during the game, the description of the objetcs, the objects themselves and so on. There are 36 locations and more than 400 messages that the player can read during the game. I had to simplify some of the messages and descriptions, but I think they are still OK. We are also trying to avoid situations where only a single specific word can be used for an action. I will try to include at least four verbs for every required step. In case of emergency, the player will be always able to use the classical "use this with this" to overcome the problem of knowing what to do but not guessing the right word. I am also trying to make the parser to understand basic things to make the life easier for the player. For example, if there are two objects with the same shape but different colour and only one is present you will be able to manipulate it without specifying the colour to the computer. If both are present, the system will ask which one you want to manipulate. This can be applied to the locations that, for example, have more than one door. Finally, if the RAM allows it, the idea is to allow the player to examine almost everything.

Memory wise, I am afraid that this thing will only run in 128 KB computers. In am very sorry about it, but even compressing all the texts the database without the condacts is going to be around 25 KB. Moreover, we need additional 2.5KB for the graphics patch and 6KB for the parser. This means that we are talking about 33.5KB. Using a CPC 6128 with CP/M Plus I still have around 27KB for the code itself, and this should give me some room to include most of the things we want (although I am not still 100% sure). However, I am pretty convinced that it will not fit in a 464 or a 664. A 3.5" floppy drive will be needed as well, since the graphics will be around 360-400KB. Of course, the version without graphics should run in a 464 with a ram expansion or in a standard 6128.

And what about the graphics? We are progressing slow but steady. It is quite a lot of work to make them, but Dani is creating one per week, more or less. They have quite an insane amount of detail and they will be used for some of the puzzles. The idea is to make the graphics part of the game, not just an ornament, they will be as important as the text. Every location will have a graphic just for it and the same will be true for all the endings :).

And that is basically it! It will probably take more than one year to have everything running but it is OK. We only plan to release this if we are 100% happy with it  :D :D .

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#49
Something more about the graphics! We have made 13 of them already but there is still a long way to go :)

For every location, the outline in black and white is drawn first. Then, we discuss about it and change the details that do not completely match the text. It is not usual, but it happened in the location I am showing as example.

[attachimg=1]

Then the rest of the picture is filled by hand with the different colors. It is the moment to create the light, shadows and details.

[attachimg=2]

Finally, we discuss the color palette and convert the GIF to SCR file format. There is always a little variation in the colors, but it is mostly trivial.

[attachimg=3]

I think I told it somewhere else, but I modified the PalOCP and made a custom version adapted to our necessities that allows us to check the images on an emulator or the real Amstrad. All in all, the process of drawing takes a lot of time but we are very happy with the results  :)

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