[Galladin]

Right, since I lost the screenies at Box43, and also because I wanted to divide the thread in two, here we go.

DEVIL'S MIND (Interactive Fantasies)
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An adventure game where you play a young paranormal detective / demonologist. The game features an almost fully mouse-based user interface, a kind of 1st person battle mode and a rather "unique" (in MZX games, anyways) dialogue system.

Finished stuff: Title screen, first "cutscenes"/prologue, first playable boards, battle-engine (needs some additional graphics & colour), dialogue system, inventory (adding items as the game advances), game map.

Special thanks to WildWeasel and Jauhis.

SCREENSHOTS:

[djtiesto]

I love it, it's interesting how you are releasing it under the IF name... is IF still considered active?

[Galladin]

djtiesto, on Sep 28 2007, 12:14 AM, said:

I love it, it's interesting how you are releasing it under the IF name... is IF still considered active?

Heh, I'm not sure if we're still what you consider "active". The last update at the IF website was in 2006, and I have not been in touch with Herc in the last 2 years. The ZZT members were always more productive, I guess, but then again, I've never had that much contact with them in the first place. Jauhis and Tommy are considered pretty much retired from the MZX, and I'm not sure if Emalkay still hangs around.

Anyhow, I like the idea of releasing it under IF because IF always was rather classy company to me, ever since I started MZXing (Brotherhood is one of my all time favourite games)...and I still remember the day I joined the IF team, it was cool.

By the way, if there is anyone out there who wants to collaborate in the storyline, ideas, testing, or provide linguistical support, please contact me by PM or e-mail me at markus.ahola at gmail.com.

[weasel]

Still need sound effects/music? Since I've finally got my internet back as of yesterday, I can help you out again.

[CJA]

Turning the black into a dark gray has done wonders, looks great!

[Sai'ke]

Looks great!!

Very moody.

[Galladin]

CJA, on Sep 28 2007, 06:29 PM, said:

Turning the black into a dark gray has done wonders, looks great!

I truly hope so!

As you can see, the battle board is still "full of space"...I will try to look into that some day, but at the moment it stays as it is because I don't wish to fill the screen with too much irrelevant stuff, and I want to keep the numbers & stats hidden.

I've been doing more boards, but they still lack a lot of details & content. Thanks to WildWeasel's advice I managed to shrink down the size of the music files, but it still may be a bit too harsh for some MZXers to download a 10 Mb .RAR file of which 9 Mb is completely audio, no? We shall see.

[Koji]

I LOVE IT.

[Frobozz]

Not that I'm trying to start another compression war, but you could try 7zip or bzip. Either of them might do a little better. Of course 10MB nowadays is nothing to most people. Even on dialup it isn't that bad.

[Galladin]

Frobozz, on Sep 29 2007, 03:52 AM, said:

Not that I'm trying to start another compression war, but you could try 7zip or bzip. Either of them might do a little better. Of course 10MB nowadays is nothing to most people. Even on dialup it isn't that bad.

I'll try that, thanks, Frobozz.

I added some content to the boards, created more items, finished the Notebook (to keep track of your investigations and to write down notes), and finished also the heavy wooden chest Edward has in his room (allowing the player to store more stuff at his room in 12 additional item slots).

The Notebook has one problem though; I used 'input' to allow the player write stuff, and the following happens:

You write on line 1: "123456"
And on the next line you write: "abc", but it comes out as abc456 (the '456' being from the earlier writing of course). Any idea why this happens, and if so, is there any way to fix it?

I still want to develop the story & the characters and give them more depth but I'd rather get more points of view and ideas from other people.

[Galladin]

This is not dead yet, folks.

Although I cannot really do any MXZing while in the army, I have been brainstorming and thinking on the plot and other stuff. I also gave Jauhis the latest version of the game, since he told me he might be able to do some boards etc.

I added some items before starting the army, such as the brassknuckles, which will be a kind of a reward for winning a boxing match or something. I also managed to do some work on a puny "dynamic" lighting engine - it looks okay. So far I have not found any bugs whatsoever.

De mica en mica s'omple la pica.

[Kom]

I'm glad this is still getting worked on, it looks like it'll be a really nice game!

[Galladin]

Today I was working on a start menu thingy, which will provide an introduction to the game mechanics and user interface, controls etc...oh and it allows the player to listen the soundtrack and so on.

The plot still needs some serious shining, I want to mix the Jack the Ripper stuff with pre-nazi german mysticism, secret societies, and lovecraftian horror. I was planning to present that the Whitechapel murders were actually done by a group of mystics and occultists in order to perform a ritual, summoning a demonish deity or something, and creating a half-demon child...who will be then placed into a host family in Austria..."Mr. Hitler, this is your newly adopted son." (Adolf Hitler was born a year after the Ripper murders...)

It's actually rather challenging to create the plot and still keep in mind the real-life facts, victims, streets and murder locations, the letters send to the press...

Slowly but surely...

[mzxgiant]

I'd totally do voice acting for this-- unfortunately it brings back the point that it would make the archive file HUGE.

[Galladin]

mzxgiant, on Apr 30 2008, 11:02 PM, said:

I'd totally do voice acting for this-- unfortunately it brings back the point that it would make the archive file HUGE.

Actually, that's not a bad idea. Of course, completely voice acted characters will not do, but I could replace the old "hurt samples" with new, better ones...and I could add some new samples for the player character. For example, Edward could shout "My weapon is empty!", reminding the player to reload the weapon, or say something like "Right away!/No, I can not do that." when you perform an in-game action, such as picking up an item or just moving around. In addition, all the other enemies (especially human, I've got plenty of monster/animal hurt samples) need some voice acting in the battle, mostly hurt samples.

If you still think you would like to do that, send me a PM or an e-mail (markus.ahola@gmail dot com).

[asgromo]

As long as it's not terribly suggestive of YOU MUST GATHER YOUR PARTY BEFORE VENTURING FORTH YOU MUST GATHER YOUR PARTY BEFORE VENTURING FORTH YOU MUST GATHER YOUR PARTY BEFORE

[Galladin]

asgromo, on May 2 2008, 08:30 PM, said:

As long as it's not terribly suggestive of YOU MUST GATHER YOUR PARTY BEFORE VENTURING FORTH YOU MUST GATHER YOUR PARTY BEFORE VENTURING FORTH YOU MUST GATHER YOUR PARTY BEFORE

Too bad that phrase was never voice acted.

[asgromo]

I'm pretty completely sure it was voiced at least in Baldur's Gate 2.

[weasel]

I remember that voice very clearly being in the first Baldur's Gate, because my dad kept triggering it numerous times trying to get his party through the damn door at the Friendly Arm.

[Mr. Apol]

i have a raging boner for this game markus

[Sai'ke]

I'm curious, what are the hexagons for? Enemy movement of some sort?

[Galladin]

asgromo, on May 4 2008, 10:55 PM, said:

I'm pretty completely sure it was voiced at least in Baldur's Gate 2.

Uhh, my bad...I only remember that Icewind Dale did not have it voiced, and somehow thought it was the same with BG.

Sai'ke, on May 10 2008, 04:49 PM, said:

I'm curious, what are the hexagons for? Enemy movement of some sort?

Actually, they were for enemy and player movement before I changed the battle system...now they are there just to fill in the black space. I will need to add some background graphics, no? =(

[Galladin]

Right, I got some voice samples from mzxgiant and replied him with ideas on how to make them better but I haven't heard from him after that...if anyone's willing to do the voice acting, it'd be nice. It's basically just a couple of lines, but I'd prefer a British who'd be able to imitate the Manchester accent.

I was also talking with Jawfist about our MZX projects (old and new ones), and he came up with a nice idea too - the intro could be a spoken one (preferrablu done by the same person who does the voice acting). This way I would not have to make all those fancy cutscenes and all that.

Jawfist also gave me other good ideas - I will add the possibility to control Edward with the arrow keys, too. I think it is far more accurate than the puny "algorithm" used by the mouse-based system. Of course you can move by clicking the mouse, if you wish.

I will cut down some of the realistic facts, too. I'm sometimes too much of a perfectionist, and I try to add way too many detailed real-life facts into the game...facts and details that won't probably even get noticed. I need to speed up the work on the actual gameplay and boards.

[ShloobeR]

I'd give it a go Marcus my man.

I dunno how good my mic is but it's probably good enough!

[Galladin]

ShloobeR, on Jun 25 2008, 12:45 AM, said:

I'd give it a go Marcus my man.

I dunno how good my mic is but it's probably good enough!

PM sent!

[ShloobeR]

yeh sorry, just been a bit busy lately

I'll get on it soon

[KKairos]

So is this going to be an IF game if it actually gets released? Because that would make it the first IF game in, like, years...

[Galladin]

KKairos, on Jul 4 2008, 11:03 PM, said:

So is this going to be an IF game if it actually gets released? Because that would make it the first IF game in, like, years...

Yeah, I guess so. Like I said earlier in this thread, I haven't heard anything of the other IF members (except the Finnards, of course)...and the last MZX game released under IF was probably "Call of Caethrath" by Jawfist...so...

Anyways, I'm going to change the battle targeting system a little, to make it a bit more realistic / difficult. After that I will start actually making the boards and so on, without minding too much about the real-life historic facts. The annoying thing, however, is - as the player is allowed to walk around freely along the streets of London - making the boards and graphics etc and then adding the actual gameplay.

For example, if the player has to go to the police station, I will have to do all the boards along the way. Anyways, it'll be okay.

Tecki; Do not worry, my sir!

[Galladin]

-Added the key control system, still keeping the mouse-based moving too.
-Redid the prologue / opening "cinema".
-Added a start menu, helping the player to learn the controls and other useful stuff.

[Galladin]

+ Redesigned parts of the Battle-engine. New graphics, background graphics. Now clicking the left mouse button results in a fast right jab, holding down the button performs a heavy left hook dealing more damage. The targeting system now works with a little moving circle (seen in the screenshot as a little white curve - a quarter of a circle - below the monster, where as white means miss, green a slight wound, and so on.)

+ Added 2 new boards.

+ Added more details to the streets, such as human excrements, street orphans, prostitutes, and fun stuff like that.

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