Gnomish Hills


This is the village (black & white version) of Gnomish Hills from my game, Darkdevil County. It was actually one of the first sections I programmed (about 8 months ago now, YIKES), but was never satisfied with it. I compressed the mountain and foreground areas substantially (since there wasn't a whole lot going on, and moved the house with the bush in closer as well. Still probably too wide, since when my character appears against this background she's quite small (tho still too tall to actually fit thru the doors -- we just have to pretend that there's a shrink pad on each sidewalk).

Just thought I'd show you I haven't been a complete slacker this past week while I watch my savings and retirement funds disappear. The good thing is that the expenses for last month on the credit card were 3.72 -- only because I really really needed a Starbucks and a scone and left the house with no money. We'll have to remedy that.

Labels: AGS, art, Darkdevil County

- posted by Cynthia @ 3:26 PM | | | Link |

 
Happy 5th Anniversary
to me.

Well, missed it by a few days, which is odd, in its way, to miss such a milestone.

Maybe with Obama firmly in charge, one of my original impulses to blog has lessened (but we must never ever drop the ball again. Not ever, else they will creep back in with their evil ways.)

The blogosphere has changed, consolidating around Facebook and/or My Space, so that individual blogs seem almost beside the point.

I'm not doing as much artwork as I was 5 years ago -- or it seems different -- or it's not painting -- or something.

I haven't been knitting in awhile -- 2 sweaters I started still need to be sewn together.

Mostly have been cooking and watching the market and my savings collapse, sometimes at the same time.

For example, am making my famous chicken leg 'n' thigh soup (roast 2 or 3 of 'em for about an hour at 375, then strip the good meat, dump bones and skin and weird meat, add rosemary, salt, pepper, a couple of carrots, celery, a half bay leaf into your favorite microwave bowl, cover with water and pan fat, nuke at 60 percent for about 45 minutes. There you have it -- strain and separate out the stock so you can refrigerate and skim the fat off -- but save it for sauteing).

And, of course, still scripting and doing artwork for my never-ending game, Darkdevil County. Next installment is nearly ready. I mean it this time.

Labels: AGS, art, computers, cooking, Darkdevil County, GOP incompetence, obama, robots

- posted by Cynthia @ 5:27 PM | | | Link |

 
Robot With Sneakers


This is Duo, the robot I talked about below. He (or she) is no longer barefoot and has been reassembled.

He (or she) is one of the robots in my computer game Darkdevil County. If you go to the Ox-Bow benefit tonight, you'll have the opportunity to buy a different robot -- but a really good one, framed and everything.

Is so cold, but I really should get myself going if I want to get down there (I don't, not really, even with the full cash bar and fabulous food). Have been programming like mad all today and yesterday. Want to FINISH this latest version, because there's tons of GOOD STUFF in it -- not just more rooms to explore, but a the story line has gone a bit deeper and the animations are gradually getting better.

Also, am definitely looking to pick up a contract programming/part time/ maintenance/Excel/Access/lite development gig, if anyone knows of something. I can program any of the Visual Studio languages, tho the C family and Visual Basic are my key strengths -- and gaming languages, of course. I've done SQL Server work, but not using a recent implementation (does anyone remember pre-7.0??).

And yes, this is because my savings have been all but wiped out. Thank you, 8 years of failed GOP policies. Thank you very much.

Labels: AGS, art, computers, Darkdevil County, games, robots

- posted by Cynthia @ 4:10 PM | | | Link |

 
How About Appointing a Freeking Democrat
...for a change?

Gregg withdraws as nominee for Commerce

He cited "irresolvable conflicts" with Obama's handling of the economic stimulus and 2010 census.

Yeah, like he's a freeking REPUBLICAN!! Who hates to spend a nickel on the little guy!!

Good afternoon, friends. Have been programming the new scenario busily all afternoon, led astray by an uninitialized variable that was causing (as they tend to) weird effects, but this in the color I was trying to tint a room. Was about to report it as a bug in the new version of AGS until I dumped a bunch of stuff and discovered, what do you know, it was my problem.

Kind of like Gregg. He's one of the bugs in the Obama code. We fix it, and move on.

Labels: AGS, computers, Darkdevil County, games, politics

- posted by Cynthia @ 6:02 PM | | | Link |

 
Broken Robot


This is Duo, a robot experiment with human feet. He (or perhaps she) was dumped in an animal burrow as medical waste. Our Darkdevil County heroine (as always seems to be the case) finds him or her and is charged with a good deed.

Good evening, friends. Have been working rather hard on the game again, and the new burrow room and quest is nearly complete, with dripping water and distant river sounds and everything.

Does anyone know when Soundsnap.com started charging for sounds? It was a shock going back to my favorite sound site and discovering you can only download 5 a month with a free subscription now. I can easily download 5 a minute then decide I don't want to use any of them after all, and go back for more. Luckily freesound.org is still free, with Creative Commons sampling licensing. And they handily remember all your downloads which makes it easy to add the sound artist names to credits.

Labels: AGS, Darkdevil County, games, robots

- posted by Cynthia @ 11:39 PM | | | Link |

 
No! NO! Freshpaint Isn't Ending!
Several people saw the title of my last blogging and worried that it was a Freshpaint signoff. NOT! I may be twittering and livejournalling and facebooking and AGS foruming and whatnot a lot these days, but I'm still here, and will continue to be.

Will be celebrating the 5th anniversary at the end of the month, after all. And I want to see if spring will ever come this year, and post the first sign of it.

Have been working feverishly (for a change) on a new room for Darkdevil County, this one a burrow with another damaged robot in it. The plot is evolving in new directions, and I'm just flowing with it.

I know I said last August or September that I'd be posting a new version of the game "soon," and I apologize. Hideously cold weather and nothing to watch on TV have been good for game development, however, as has a computer that actually works.

So, once again, I predict I'll be posting more "soon."

Labels: AGS, Darkdevil County

- posted by Cynthia @ 10:05 AM | | | Link |

 
Darkdevil County Back in Production
Here's a preview of new artwork for Darkdevil County:



One variation, at least. Is so easy to add layers and layers, tweak colors forever, never know where or when to stop, or whether it's what I want anyway.

This is one (possible) frame from the opening sequence I'm planning -- a little more comic book-y than draw-y. I don't have very good tools for image manipulation (or animation) and can't afford better. This is where our heroine, Magwyn Urban-dweller, lives, and it's still night. Soon the sky will lighten as I tell some of the background of the story (rather than have you read it in a readme.txt file). We may see a few robots on their way to work, maybe some distant cannon fire.

Or not.

Since it seems as though most of the serious issues with the latest version of AGS have been resolved (we're now up to 3.1.2), it seems safe to continue onwards.

It's taking me a long time to get back into the program/game and pick up from where I'd been. Computer is working extremely well, so am tempted to go into debt and get a Wacom tablet and more memory.

We'll see.

Have told myself that before I even turn the computer on in the morning will do at least one drawing. This is the first.

Labels: AGS, art, Darkdevil County, games

- posted by Cynthia @ 12:02 PM | | | Link |

 
Darkdevil County Synopsis
War is coming ever closer to Darkdevil County. Magwyn Urban-Dweller, a tech worker, has been oblivious to much of the outside world because of the demands of her job. All that changes the morning she gets an urgent message from her best friend, Lina, begging her to go to the hospital and donate blood. She rushes from her apartment to help her friend.

Magwyn soon begins to understand that not everything or everyone is what it seems. The warring factions include robots, clones, Queen Miria and the reigning royals, scientists, gnomes, doctors, and friends. Some are interested only in developing and using new weaponry -- others vow to stop them -- others are dedicated to peace and a quiet life.

A mystery in her family's past links her to a world seemingly gone mad. To save herself, she must save the world. And maybe change it too.

But first she must figure out how to get out of the hospital...

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

For some reason, I never posted this game intro here on the blog, which shows just how clearly I don't know what the f*** I'm doing.

Version 2.0 of the demo takes you through the next part of her journey, once she actually does get out of the hospital.

Requirements: PC running at least DirectX 5.0. That's it. Simply download the .zip file, unzip it, and click on the Darkdevil County exe file. If you've played old Sierra or Lucasarts style games, you already know how to play this. Otherwise, it's not hard. When the first screen comes up, move your mouse to the top of the screen, click on the ? button, and read the Help file.

For those of you who say, oh god, not clones again -- it's not anything like the new Star Wars. Trust me.

Mirror 1:
Darkdevil County Demo 2

Mirror 2:
Darkdevil County Demo 2.zip (Currently inactive 10/24/2008)

Labels: AGS, Darkdevil County, games

- posted by Cynthia @ 10:49 AM | | | Link |

 
Darkdevil County Demo 2.0 Released
Download it from here -- it's about 20 meg. When you get it, unzip it and click on the Darkdevil County Demo 2.0 exe file. It's THAT SIMPLE. You can read the How To Install txt file for more info and a summary of the story line. Note to previous gamers: "save" files from version 1 aren't compatible. Sorry.

Site 1:
Darkdevil County Demo Version 2.0

Site 2:
Darkdevil County Demo 2.zip (currently inactive 10/24/2008)

This is a fairly major release for me (hence bumping to 2.0), so I hope everyone has fun. I'm going out to buy some champagne right now, so let me know about any bugs later.

Labels: AGS, Darkdevil County, games

- posted by Cynthia @ 4:48 PM | | | Link |

 
Last Bug Fixed in Darkdevil County Demo 2.0
Decided to say it out loud, since all the little bugs not yet found will hear me and come scurrying as soon as I upload it to the servers.

Where aaaaaaaaarrrrreee youuuuu?

And since I've done so much work on this thing, rather than make it 1.5, it's going to be 2.0, so there. Still planning on 2 or maybe 3 other chunks in this thing before I declare it done. Is a couple of hours of play time as it now stands and will shortly be getting to the point it will be hard for me to keep testing from the beginning and test all available paths. So I will be relying on all YOU out there to help me out.

A word of advice to anyone who thinks they might want to make their own game and make a lot of money.

Ha.

Maybe two words.

Ha ha.

Will post more when it's up there live.

Labels: AGS, Darkdevil County, games

- posted by Cynthia @ 2:30 PM | | | Link |

 
Meet Simon Darkdevil


Well, one version of the concept art, at least. Have been trying to come up with a romantic warrior type guy with a flowing cape that will animate well -- would rather not talk about the waving cape with 54 frames I created earlier today and then forgot to save.

So here's Simon, maybe. I probably won't get him cleaned up enough for this next demo release (soon!! soon!!).

I think he needs clothes. Maybe not.

(Yes, there's something wrong with the hands. I keep changing my mind as to whether he's wearing a glove and the placement on the trident. And you may notice he has more than a sixpack, since I lenthened the torso at one point. And the thong... well, enough said.)

Labels: AGS, Darkdevil County, games

- posted by Cynthia @ 11:18 PM | | | Link |

 
Darkdevil County Update
Have been working away on the next group of rooms -- here's a sample:



Will probably have it ready to upload by the weekend, so let's hope for bad weather!

Labels: AGS, Darkdevil County, games

- posted by Cynthia @ 5:35 PM | | | Link |

 
Darkdevil County Demo 1.01
Have updated the links below (and on the side) with the latest version -- not a whole lot changed/fixed, but the opening screens are now...

IN FULL COLOR!

Will probably do more artwork tweaking at some point, but want to keep moving forward as well.

I would love to hear from people -- complaints, suggestions, bugs, whatever. This is a work in progress -- I'll be at it for quite some time. It will never look like Grand Theft Auto 4 or Halo or any of the commercial games out there. It's all homemade -- kind of like violent muffins.

The next section of the game is progressing, with better animation, I promise.

Labels: AGS, Darkdevil County, games

- posted by Cynthia @ 9:45 PM | | | Link |

 
New Screen Shot


Colorized!

The original opening scene (and most of the others) are still pretty much black and white in the demo game. (See link below). Am working on adding color to the original drawings, trying to use it to set mood, etc. Is harder than you might think, especially when you remember that I don't know what I'm doing at all.

Here you see the main character at a crossroads outside a hospital and the city of Darkdevil.

Labels: AGS, Darkdevil County, games

- posted by Cynthia @ 5:43 PM | | | Link |

 
Darkdevil County Demo Available
UPDATE: Both sites below have updated version 1.01.

You can download a demo of the first few rooms at the link below. I'm missing all sorts of bells and whistles (opening intro screens, gee-wiz animations, etc.) And the walk-cycles still leave a lot to be desired. The file is fairly large, but I hope to get the size reduced soon.UPDATE: DONE! File is about 12.5 meg now.

Requirements: Windows 98 or greater, running at least DirectX 5.0, preferably Direct3D 9 or greater. Installation: just download and unzip the file folder to any location. Open the folder and click on "Darkdevil County Demo 1.xx.exe" (version number may vary). It's that simple. No fuss, no muss, no crap added to your already bloated registry. If you need to tweak performance, you can play with the settings in "winsetup.exe".

Darkdevil County Demo.zip (currently inactive 10/24/2008)

UPDATE: Have added a second site:
UPDATE 2: This is version 1 of the demo. New and improved demo 2 (or 3...) coming soon, I promise

Darkdevil County Demo

With luck, one of these sites will be up and running.

If you have problems, please let me know in comments here or at the AGS Forum linked to below.

I've heard that AGS engine games are playable in Linux/Wine configurations, or with Crossover/Mac but have no way of testing. If anyone out there wants to try it out and let me know, I'd really appreciated it. Also, haven't tested on Vista yet either.

Have fun!

Labels: AGS, Darkdevil County, games

- posted by Cynthia @ 6:40 PM | | | Link |

 
The Game
Am finally getting it together to upload my first demo of this game. Working title is:

Darkdevil County

And you can check out a few screen shots and plans at the link above. Will continue posting updates to this link, so check back. Still looking for the best site to upload a 30 meg file (tho will zip down a bit smaller), else the demo would be uploaded too. Still a few technical questions outstanding as well.

More later. If there seems to be any interest, will start a development blog, tho how I will find the energy for it all baffles me.

Labels: AGS, Darkdevil County, games

- posted by Cynthia @ 4:12 PM | | | Link |