[Ashes] Forgotten, but back in the works

[resle]

Yeah, what's with the edge on the graphics? They kinda look unique though. I mean, you can't win on good graphics so going for an interesting style seems a better choice. I'd ditch the edge though.

Right. I knew we couldn't have "commercial" graphics (Screaming_Life is great, but he does everything by himself with no help from anyone ellse!), so I thought that having a peculiar look may save us from that point of view. But honestly, even if I'll sound a little presumptuos, if you check the other free indies rpg games out there, I think no one can match Ashes (at least graphically)

It also might help to not focus on the graphics so much and instead work on getting the other systems "done".

Actually I didn't work on graphics (rendering engine/eye candy) for months. I am all for schedules, combat, dialogue system, sounds, events and so on... things that doesn't add anything to the screenshots, but which are the very structure of an rpg.
Just check the games features on http://ashes.lalista.org

Cheers

bee

 

[resle]

We advanced some more. Two "pre-tech-demo" are already running in thands of a selected audience (selected here means "people who knows they can't expect much and will patiently suffer horrible bugs). Screaming_Life and I are working tightly with our little spare time to put in the last items/code we want to show in the demo. In particular I am really rushing to include a playable beta of the combat system in it, to please who asked to see some gameplay elements and not just eye candy

Anyway in the meantime here are some misc screenshots, displaying among the others the book/scroll/signs/etc. system (which is coming along quite nicely, it's almost HTML 1.0 reinvented ), the dialogue system, etc. All in all what you're able to do in pre-tech demo so far is moving around this little island which takes aproximately 1/600 of the whole world. There's a small wood, a couple npcs living their lives, some roaming deers and boars, a little cemetary. You can talk to the npcs, visit a house, read some books and eat some food.

 

[Naked_Lunch]

Wow, I am REALLY digging those graphics. Especially the portrait art, it gives your game a unique artistic edge.

Keep it going, sounds fantastic.

 

[Sol Invictus]

Zomg! The cellshading looks pretty nice.

 

[NeutralMilkHotel]

Looks nice, keep it up. I think making those models look not so buff (like, as opposed to how it looks like they're both on roids now) would help. Or I may be wrong.

 

[Screaming_life]

... Especially the portrait art, it gives your game a unique artistic edge.

yeah thats just a placeholder! :D

In fact we need someone to do the portraits so if anyone can help...

Also, i think because there are randomly generated npc's with random names and dialogue the portraits are going to be random as well... pieced together by random elements (eyes, nose, hat, scarf etc.)

Looks nice, keep it up. I think making those models look not so buff (like, as opposed to how it looks like they're both on roids now) would help. Or I may be wrong.

They're also placeholders but they look better in motion...

although they need to move faster!

¬_¬

 

[wolfen]

i'm amazed by how a free game can look so good.
my opinion: the character models could be a bit more diverse, with other bodies instead of tough thugs.
I also hope that the 'social attitude' play some role in the game.

(and if you want some voice, I might borrow mine for in case you like it! just pm me and we can talk about it)

best wishes!

 

[Fez]

You killed me. :shock: At least I died doing what I loved.

It's good to see some scenes showing some of the interactions from the game. It's looking good.

 

[Screaming_life]

Here are some new screens showing a new character model... textures are just temporary:

 

[Diogo Ribeiro]

Cool beans.

They all look like a cross between 80's heavy metal band members and spanish ladyboys, though :razz:

 

[DarkUnderlord]

Heh. Ladyboys.

 

[obediah]

I thought it was the Priscilla mod.

Looks good to me, except realistic (or sem-realistic) heads in computer games always give me the jeebies or something. I just hate them. I can deal with that if need be.

On a more seriuos note, if you're going to float text, do everything you can to make it crisp clean and legible - the later shots with labels look better, but some of the shots look horrible from an ease-of-reading standpoint. There are so many old games I can't play because reading the text hurts my brain, and hate to see new games go to that pile.

 

[Atrokkus]

Whoa, the project is surely promising! Keep it up.

I'm interested in your dialog system. What's it gount to be and what is it now? What problems you have with it?
I'm interested cuz well, I value dialogs above many other things, and plus i myself tinkered with different dialog system ideas (i'm crazy enough to try to implement dialogs in Warcraft3), so it would be interesting to hear your viewpoint.

 

[Naked_Lunch]

Did you rip that font from Ultima VII?

 

[resle]

Naked_Lunch: No, it's quite a different font! But writing it in yellow and white just like U7 does the trick, gives the same feeling and thus... you're driven into thinking it's the same font

Metallix: Dialogue is VERY important infact. I had been fiddling with various hypotesis but in the end the classic point-and-click dialogue still seem to be the best. Of course there are some innovations here and there, for example randomly-generated dialogues which still makes sense and are different every time (mostly they're used for wandering characters, who are also randomly generated). Such dialogues will be created by a very powerful opens ource grammar parser: http://www.polygen.org. Unluckily the site is in italian so I think you won't find it very interesting... anyway, here it is

 

[Fez]

Looking good. Any more updates on game features, interaction with enviroment, combat, story, etc?

 

[Screaming_life]

They all look like a cross between 80's heavy metal band members and spanish ladyboys, though :razz:

yeah... well... erm... there aren't any hairdressers in the Ashes world... not yet anyway!

Hopefully hair length will be customisable.

Looks good to me, except realistic (or sem-realistic) heads in computer games always give me the jeebies or something. I just hate them. I can deal with that if need be.

yeah i completely agree. The textures are just temporary, i just grabbed a random face texture and stretched it over the mesh

Did you rip that font from Ultima VII?

Everything is ripped from Ultima VII !

Looking good. Any more updates on game features, interaction with enviroment, combat, story, etc?

what do you want to know?

The book system can be seen above or a more updated version here:

http://ashes.lalista.org/shots/book_page_1.jpg

You can move objects around by clicking and dragging, drag them over party members to put them in their inventory. You can use objects by double clicking then selecting the party member - they don't need to be in your inventory to use them, they can be near by. Double clicking certain objects will perform certain actions, so for example opening doors, sitting on chairs, going to bed (not implemented yet) etc.
There is one where you can sit at a table with your party and a guy will come and give you all a plate and put food on it for you.

I don't know too much about combat except that it is turn based
The magic system is in the works
and story, again i don't know much about but each day i learn something new. All i can say is that you can see the depth that has been added over the past 15 years or so.

 

[ecliptic]

So I take that this game has gone belly up?