Hungry Whispers Sprite Preview

lol sprite

Download the full version off my dA, my all-nighter can now end.

*collapses into bed*

Inventory ideas and angry man designs (and not in that order)

So the title really says it all so lets get to it. (Jades watching us) So up first is the angry man on the train design. Kind of realised he hadn't been designed yet so I set about it yesterday. I did a couple of designs (didn't really go into clothes as I figured he would be wearing shirt/tie in any designs) so I focused on the face. There's one I think is the strongest design and believe works best, but I did a few more just to mess around a bit and make sure I'd got the right idea. I'll let everyone else see which one they like the most (the one in the upper left makes me laugth).

 
So I've also done some designs for the inventory system. I know Jade has had some trouble designing it and quite frankly I had trouble designing it too and one idea I hit upon is; do we really need a separate screen for the items. There's several reasons I thought this. For one the separate screen for the items adds nothing other then allowing us to see a close up of the item itself (hold on I'll come back to that) . We could of used it for combining items and we can, but it seems just as easy to do that in the main game screen (you'll select the item, press the combine button and then click the item you wish to combine with). Due to a quirk of the engine (and by quirk I mean really annoying glitch that means you can't select an item and then switch state - side note - a way around that just occurred to me this second but lets leave that for now) all the items have to be displayed on the main screen, which I think is quite helpful and makes selecting items easier anyway. There's little need for a screen purely for the inventory as it doesn't seem to do much. So what I propose is that we scrap that screen altogether and have it so that when you use the look function on an item in the inventory, it will display the dialog explaining what that item is and show a close up of that item on top of the screen. Like so;

BUT! Because I know this idea may not be popular or I've missed something that someone will bring up in the comments, I did a quick whip up of the layout for the inventory screen anyway. Though it does result in a lot of empty space which is a bit of a shame, but honestly I'm really struggling with it. This design I believe would be the most efficient and practical, all the items down one side and the description and image on the right when clicked on. Not all that different from the TKON one. For things like the phone there would be an option to use and by pressing on use it would then take you to another screen altogether (which is actually how it would work in the other design too).

(Prize to who ever spots the item that dosen't belong)
I didn't go all out on the graphics as I wanted to focus on the layout and get that down before worrying about the overall look of it.

Just in case anyone asks. I know in a lot of other games the items are displayed in like a drop down box and believe me I tried to get something like that working, its not the fault of as3 or flixel but mine that I just can't get it to work properly. It basically would end up crashing the file as it wouldn't frikkin disappear after you clicked and after much trial and error I just figured to leave it. But that's actually another reason I like the idea I've proposed, if you think to monkey island 4's inventory, that just appears over the current screen as do ermm probably a lot of other games that I cant think of right now!

Anyway enjoy. And if people really don't like this idea or the layout for the inventory screen I'm sure we can figure out some new design that works even better and I'll have a bit more a think about it.

Wasabi Engine version 2 and some Character designs

Here's the link; http://flippinmental.deviantart.com/art/wasabi-engine-ver-2-246375076

No sound so far and it may take a while to load. But other then that this is an as3 version of the wasbi engine. It's still not fully working, some bits are being annoying, some bits dont look that great like the text. OHH how I tried to change the text, so many times and just nothing seems to work. It's possible it will probably take me a while to figure out, I'm probably just doing something really stupid. I tried to get items working, again I'm sure I'm just doing something stupid and thats why its not working. I haven't done anything particularly special, everything I've done can be done pretty easily. What I've been aiming to do thought is not make anything amazing but make the code efficient, so that you never have to repeat code or have complicated time lines. Like with the flixel version this can load a swf as a cutscene so thats good.

I'm really in two minds about this. In some ways the flixel version will be easier to use and make more complex stuff in. However this version is using the basic as3 version so it means it will be easier for other people to work on it and to understand. I'm quite happy to explain and teach as to how the flixel version works though.

And while I'm at this posting event I'll post some of the designs I've done for character. I went a bit crazy with the old man, drawn a friendly pose and shouting pose but they're quite horrible drawings. The one I really like though is the bartender, I think he looks pretty cool. Also got the mum and the angry guy, I quite like those too but I think Michelles drawings are better.

Update & Moar chara sketches

Posted on behalf of Michelle because Blogger is being a bit of a douche!

Also, some introductions for characters for the train scenes. Sorry if they've suddenly sprung up as I was working  on day2's script and their characters kinda just evolved from that in the process.

Bartender: Works in the 1st class food carriage at the bar. Friendly and approachable
Mother & sniffy kid: Mother is a bit spacey and the kid is a bit sniffy/has some illness in which he coughs every now and then.  Their backstory is that the rich husband is moving abroad and wants them to come hence they didn't have much choice to travel. Yu befriends them during day2's events in which you'll see how.
Frustrated Phone Guy: Business worker who's trying to salvage a company deal and trying to get back to his office as fast as he can.  Rude to Yu but softens after the incident
Old Man: At first glance he seems like a normal old guy drinking tea but it's slowly revealed that his son recently passed and that the tea was actually wine.  He goes crazy after a while and is very suspicious.

Day2 general plot:
- Yu isn't feeling good and gets a phone call from Kemi
- Kemi suggests to get fresh air and water in which Yu complies.  They also agree to meet up later that evening.
- Yu comments that the seating area of carriage 6 is practically empty apart from the above characters and wonders whether it's because it's not dinner time or something else.
- Yu then talks to the other characters
- Bartender: gets water
- Mother & Child (Mrs. Lee and Kenny): Kenny initiates the conversation by asking Yu to draw him an elephant. Following this conversation, Yu builds a good relationship with the mother and especially Kenny.  I've done it so that when Kenny asks you whether Yu can be his big brother too (after hearing about Kemi) players can choose Y/N XD
- Frustrated Phone Guy: Keeps telling Yu to buzz off as he's blocking the phone signal
- Old Man looks like he was meditating by holding his teacup but Yu finds that he was actually trying to calm his nerves. It turns out that the Old Man is incredibly superstitious and due to his son recent passing he's forced to travel back hom to sort out the affairs.  During conversation he keeps talking to 'Yao' and making creepy comments like "If you're wondering why this carriage is so empty compared to yesterday, it's because it's already FULL! HAHA!" stuff like that.
- After talking to everyone to the point of repeating, Yu prompts the players that he's feeling unwell again and to go back to his compartment
- There he reads a travel mag explaining about ghost month and warnings
- During reading a minor crash incident happens (earthquake inducing a small landslide in which several rocks knock into the train carriages)
- Mother knocks on Yu's door asking for a doctor - Kenny is injured (que trauma centre puzzle)
- Yu talks to the other passengers, old man is sleeping, phone guy calms down and bartender is trying to work out what happened but communication has sporadic signal due to being in a mountainous area.
- Yu gets the distressed call from Kemi
- Old man wakes up and goes a bit crazy
- Yu's guilt builds up again cos he can't do anything for Kemi or Kenny.
- After the train starts moving, Yu remembers that the nearest hospital next to their station is his hospital so he writes notes for his hospital to prepare for Kenny.  As the train pulls into the station, Yu runs off without looking back to find Kemi.
- Yu returns home to get phone batteries only to find that Kemi left a voice msg on his landline saying that she's fine.
- Yu decides to visit Kemi the next day and gives his respects to a nearby altar.

I shall post the script for day2 after I've proof read and finalised it; it currently stands at 18 pages XDDD  I'll also update the labels later to include the added characters so far.

Also I have to quote Michelle's text for my Yu chara design because it's just awesome "Yu is gna b one smexy chunk of a man" which decides things: Yu's face/hair design is complete XD