STASIS

Hey guys, thanks so much. These comments are what get me to my computer to work on this, after a full day of being at a computer.

Thought I would show you guys some of the interim designs and ideas I tend to throw together before settling on something solid.

I was setting up the SAVE GAME menu, and thought about, instead of calling them 'save games', being all sci-fi'ey and calling them CHRONOSPHERES...technology that owuld allow you to move back to a certain point in time. The chronosphere pack would clip into your salvage suit. It was still normal save games, but just in a clever way...or a way I thought was clever! The more I worked on the logistics of it, I came into a few issues-the main one being that I can save the screenshots of the save games into circles.

Onto design 2!

I decided to go to the hologram way of doing things, and came up with a few interfaces for it, but really, it was losing a bit of that 'old skool' style of buttons, gauges, and 'heavyness' that I want. I have a few cool ideas for the menu systems in general...but they just werent 'flowing' for the save game system, SO...

I went to just a normal menu. Based on the same idea of the elevator control system. Its simple, and effective. I may still go back to the 'chronosphere' idea, but for now Im doing the 'KEEP IT SIMPLE, STUPID' was of game design. This works.

Yeah, i think this should work very well. I like all of your concepts, but the last one is clear and intuitive.

I like the last one too What software are you using for the scenes/menu?

Hey guys, just wanted to drop in a little update. The project is still very much alive and kicking, although most of the stuff Im doing now is all the background coding logic...nothing graphical-any any graphics I have in are literally stick figures and circles with writing in them!

Ive also taken a relook at the story, and rewritten quite a large chunk of the second act with a rather nice twist, and 'love interest' of sorts. Kinda love interest. And kinda a twist. I tell you, its so difficult to NOT tell you guys the story!

Nigec, I use 3DSMax.

my game is all quick renders at the moment, I have to model and furnish a house so I focused on getting the lighting, camera views and object locations first and the navigation, I'm glad I did it that way as the way I lit the rooms changed by time I did the upper floors.I'm more used to rendering single scenes with a focal point not stuff that follows on lol. I use Sketchup, Carrara and Truespace, 99% is rendered in Thea . keeping it simple to begin with def works

It is incredible! It looks great! Courage, hope you finish. It really looks great.

You've got amazing graphics, there's great detail that goes into everything and that tells a lot about the world of the game and the game developer. The feeling reminds me of great sci-fi films in space, Alien, Event Horizon, Sunshine. There seem to be so few sci-fi adventure games anymore, a lot of CSI kinda adventures involving crime and the right forensic tools nowadays. The days of the DIG and Space Quest are but a memory. Someone needs to make a stand for all the sci-fi fans out there with a great story, amazing characters and a memorable world. I think STASIS is going to be just that. All the best to you and may it be a smooth process.

ingumak

Thanks man. I hope I finish as well!

keinezung

Thanks so much for the kind words. I am such a massive SCI FI fan, and really, the Adventure Game genre just fits in so well in a 'serious' Sci Fi setting that I'm surprised that it hasn't been done very often before. I think that The Dig did a massive amount of damage for 'serious' sci fi adventures-not that it was a horrible game, but just because of the development hell it went through! Those films you mentioned are the exact inspiration for STASIS. In fact, I watched EVENT HORIZON this weekend when working on one of the cinematic sequences, to see how they filmed and lit their ghost ship!

Im really working hard on creating a creepy, believable world-a world that 'I' would want to explore as an adventure gamer. A world that makes you want to open up the next door-be excited to discover a piece of technology, or uncover the next piece of the puzzle. At its heart, the story of STASIS is a mystery, wrapped up in a survival adventure.

Keep taking a look back!

Heres a shot pf the Space Walk sequence, when you first get into the Groomlake.

Originally this entire sequence was going to be a cinematic, with an in game 'cut scene' of the captain going towards the airlock-but after going back to my original story treatment, I realized that half the fun of sci-fi ghost ship stories is the initial discovery....the building of excitement BEFORE you enter into the ship-and having that as a cut scene is taking a lot of that away from the player. SO! Here we have the first piece of the spacewalk sequence.

You can also see the Hawking in the bottom right, for those wondering just what you ship actually looks like.

The scene has some really nice little animated touches....running lights blink on The Hawking..the captain in his salvage suit is animated to kinda 'dangle' his legs, and I've implemented a particle system to have bits of 'space dust' randomly drifting around. Combined the the 'hollow' sound of Marachecks breathing, the sequence is quite...cold, for lack of a better word!

Something that may be of interest to some people is a piece of sound design from the game. Im trying to make the game sound 'empty' and kinda freaky, so Im thinking of dropping a musical soundtrack, and just building up the soundtrack of the game with ambient sounds and noises. This is a collection of the sounds from the Nursery sequence, with some other interface sounds layered over it. Just trying to get a feel for how layered to make the sounds, how loud the ambient sound will be, and to see if it will actually work. Tell me what you think? Freaky? Or just kinda stupid?

http://vimeo.com/17514306