New Project: Lost Son, or Nep Still Makes Games?

Nepenthe · Joined: 27 Sep 2004 Posts: 132

Kinda what I figured. I can probably spread most of the ideas I had for the school throughout other areas. There is only one gag that cannot possibly work anywhere else, and although i'd really like to include it, it's not worth pulling the player out of the game.

Nepenthe · Joined: 27 Sep 2004 Posts: 132

I really haven't updated this since August? Wow. I have no excuse.

Well, holiday music has been playing over the loudspeakers at work for a few weeks now. It's been giving me the itch to really dive back into Lost Son headfirst. Something about Christmas music just calls to mind glistening heaps of gore, festering flesh pustules and the red of rent viscera. Or maybe that's just me. What?

It's funny, I've done more pre-production on Lost Son than any of my other games, but also the least production. What was meant to be a cozy, 3-5 hour romp grew into an epic. That's sort of the problem I have with all my projects. They always seem to outgrow me. They get too big and intimidating and I have trouble even making a dent in production. By now I normally would have dropped this game all together, but I feel like there's something special about this one. It keeps pulling me back in.

Nepenthe · Joined: 27 Sep 2004 Posts: 132

Ok, when last I laid Lost Son to rest, I was struggling with the graphical scale. This is still the main problem I'm having with this game. It's all about finding the balance between detail and screen real-estate.

One possible solution I've been tossing around is to have the game operate at two scales simultaneously. The primary scale for navigating the town would be 1:2 NPC (that is, NPC's would be 10 pixels tall with buildings realistically proportioned based off that). This would allow me to fit in more visual information and would prevent, for example, a road from filling the entire screen with asphalt tiles. Also, it would make crossing the town quicker thus making sidequests less tedious (hopefully). I could probably even do 1:4 if I really wanted to. Think of it as a very close overworld map.

Then I could use a second scale (probably 1:1 or 2:1) for interiors and set piece locations. When the player gets near one of these set pieces a little icon could pop up indicating that zoom is available. At that point the player could either continue on in the zoomed out view, or press a button to switch maps to the zoomed in version.

Of course, the downside to this is having to draw every important location twice. I really don't know if I'm up for that. Then again, if it's the only way to accomplish what I want, it'll be totally worth it. Or maybe I'm just trying to have my cake and eat it too. As always, any thoughts are appreciated.

Nepenthe · Joined: 27 Sep 2004 Posts: 132

Let's see what Radha looks like at 10 pixels tall. Shall we?

Also, anyone know how to prevent Flickr from converting my perfectly lossless .png files into low quality .jpgs? It hasn't always done that.

Nepenthe · Joined: 27 Sep 2004 Posts: 132

I drew the line art for some larger sprites today. Then I realized that I haven't unpacked my scanner yet (I just moved). Whoops.

Yeah, I'm having more trouble than I anticipated getting this going again.

Nepenthe · Joined: 27 Sep 2004 Posts: 132

Just popping in to prove I'm still alive. Once again, Christmas looms. While I'd like to have something to show this holiday season, because of my past track record, I make no promises.

TMC · Posted: Sat Sep 03, 2011 7:07 pm Post subject:

Wow, it's been a while. At this point I have no idea which game you're referring to with "something". Err... good luck.
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Nepenthe · Joined: 27 Sep 2004 Posts: 132

Lost Son. The Christmas-themed Survival/Horror RPG. (Yay for genre-mixing!)

ShakeyAir · Joined: 27 Apr 2004 Posts: 93

This looks really cool. I hope you are still working on it. I am very much like you, having been a member of the OHR community forever but hardly releasing a thing, for the same reasons. (my projects 'outgrow' me, as you said, haha)

You will have a greater response these days if you use Slime Salad's game board instead of the journal board here. Many games have journals on the board, and its a much more active forum.

I'd hate to see this game go unnoticed. Or never finished.

Nepenthe · Joined: 27 Sep 2004 Posts: 132

What?! This is neither Lost Son nor Pinhead vs. Bradley!