[ZeframCochrane]

Originally Posted by Pyke

Hell, I may just have a crowbar lying around for good measure...

Hehe... not a bad idea...

Originally Posted by Spybreaka

Edit: Also, I'm probably going to slap myself, but what are "Building better worlds", and "groomlake" references to?

May I?

" Building Better Worlds"
(Considering you just saw an Alien movie, you probably will slap yourself )

" Groom Lake"
(Check comment to the picture)

[Pyke]

Originally Posted by Spybreaka

Hey Pyke, I've just had the chance to watch that vimeo short of yours. It's looking fantastic, I must say. Can't wait to see what else you have in store for us. I also posted a comment (as JJ) on your blog regarding that first scene..

The sound effects are great, and I liked the humorous touch of having the protagonist talk back to the speaker announcement. You'd have to have take the piss now and then to save yourself from going mad in deep space.

The engine also looks very polished for an alpha build - well done!

It's a rather cool coincidence that you started this thread shortly after I had a small sci-fi horror binge. I recently watched Event Horizon, Pandorum, Alien Resurrection and Dante 01. I think you capture the atmosphere of deep space horror quite well. Your style also reminds me of an old game series - Syndicate. Don't know if you ever played it, but it was set in a dystopian future, was extremely violent, and a lot of fun :p

Edit: Also, I'm probably going to slap myself, but what are "Building better worlds", and "groomlake" references to?

Sci-Fi horror is possibly my favorite genre of film. I think its a difficult mixture to get correct, and only a few movies have really 'nailed' getting the balance between Sci-Fi and horror. Just setting a horror movie on a space ship doesn't make a good sci fi horror, nor does adding in aliens to a haunted house. But when that balance is struck, the movies are almost instantly classics!

I hadn't heard of Dante 01, but after a quick Google search I'm definitely going to order it from my local movie store!

Not quite horror, but it still fits in the genre is a really good indie sci fi film called ENIGMA.

http://www.enigmathemovie.com/

If you have 45 minutes to kill, check it out. Its free on their website, and well worth the download!

Ah-I remember Syndicate. It had those awesome cars that looked like eggs cut in half. I vividly remember the intro, where the guy was strapped into that machine that created the silhouette of Davinci's Universal Man.

With the captain talking back to the announcer, I figure that because he is a deep space salvager, he probably spends many months, or even years, alone in space-to talking to himself...or anything that may respond, almost comes naturally!

Cochrane hit the nail on the head with the 'Building Better Worlds' and the Groomlake references. The main protagonists name is also a little bit of sci-fi trivia...very obscure tho! Watch ALIENS, when they are in the med lab for the first time...

[tastebud]

as some have said, definately getting some sanitarium flashbacks here. and that can only be a good thing!

[Pyke]

Thanks tastebud!

updated the blog with a new post on how The Hawking was constructed:
http://www.stasisgame.com/blog/

[Pyke]

New video:

http://vimeo.com/18312028

http://www.stasisgame.com/decontamin...nd-xray-walls/

[kuze]

Originally Posted by Pyke

New video:

http://vimeo.com/18312028

http://www.stasisgame.com/decontamin...nd-xray-walls/

The lightning is amazing.

Just thought I'd tell you in case you didn't know.

[inm8#2]

Looks great, Pyke. We're all looking forward to playing this!

[donatelli]

I'm constantly floored by the stuff you post on your blog man. Amazing, THANK YOU. The lighting in the latest video is just gorgeous.

Watching these videos I don't think anyone would come to the conclusion that it was a) made by one person, and b) an indie enthusiast game if you will. Can't praise it enough!

[Pyke]

Thanks guys. The encouragement is really what keeps a project like this going!

Playing the game through, I think there needs to be a 'something' in between the Inner Airlock (the previous 'welcome' scene), and this. I'm thinking a MASSIVE, long corridor, with a sort of 'baggage claim' area, and more propaganda. I think that this 'pseudo lobby' could have some really nice atmosphere in it...vending machines, dead pot plants, guard tower lookouts. Thoughts?

[Pyke]

Happy New Year guys!

[donatelli]

Awesome artwork Pyke, Happy New Year!

I like your idea about the long corridor. Could be a good transition point to the next area. I'm imagining some flickering lighting, weird buzzing, dead plants as you mentioned. Maybe even a messed up loudspeaker...

[Spybreaka]

Originally Posted by Pyke

Thanks guys. The encouragement is really what keeps a project like this going!

Playing the game through, I think there needs to be a 'something' in between the Inner Airlock (the previous 'welcome' scene), and this. I'm thinking a MASSIVE, long corridor, with a sort of 'baggage claim' area, and more propaganda. I think that this 'pseudo lobby' could have some really nice atmosphere in it...vending machines, dead pot plants, guard tower lookouts. Thoughts?

I like the sound of a massive eerily quiet corridor - it should help build a sense of foreboding. That poster is my new background by the way - any chance of a high-res 1920x1200 version? :p

I also had a query/suggestion regarding your approach to lighting. I understand that you can't have a moving light-source with the character due to the way the engine is structured, and that you need to use segments that will become lit as the player walks through them. I'm wondering, however, if it might be better to have both the current and consequent sections lit when the player is in a buffer zone between the two.

i.e. Player walks down the corridor and in the last 20% of the "square" of floor that he's in, the next section would light up. That way he's never standing at the very edge of unlit space. Of course, you might be electing to do it your way for fear-inducing reasons, as we may be unable to see what's in the shadows until we are very close. Just a thought anyway

Happy new years by the way!

[Pyke]

Hey guys,

UPDATES!

ARRIVALS HALL



Dignitaries, VIP’s, and high ranking members of the military all enter through the Arrivals Hall. When fully operational, it showed off the scale and immensity of The Groomlake…but now, it is a hollow shell…an empty cavern. Welcome indeed.

and DECONTAMINATION ROOM



Space brings disease, which in a closed off space ship can quickly lead to death. Therefore, every soul who boards The Groomlake has to be scanned, and cleansed of any pathogens. The X Ray scanner also doubles as a security scanner, preventing unwanted weapons or devices on board. But what happens when there is nobody to turn off the scanners? When quarantine procedures cause a lock down? When the only thing standing between Maracheck, and the salvage of a lifetime, is an air tight metal door?

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

[Pyke]

Originally Posted by Spybreaka

I like the sound of a massive eerily quiet corridor - it should help build a sense of foreboding. That poster is my new background by the way - any chance of a high-res 1920x1200 version? :p

I also had a query/suggestion regarding your approach to lighting. I understand that you can't have a moving light-source with the character due to the way the engine is structured, and that you need to use segments that will become lit as the player walks through them. I'm wondering, however, if it might be better to have both the current and consequent sections lit when the player is in a buffer zone between the two.

i.e. Player walks down the corridor and in the last 20% of the "square" of floor that he's in, the next section would light up. That way he's never standing at the very edge of unlit space. Of course, you might be electing to do it your way for fear-inducing reasons, as we may be unable to see what's in the shadows until we are very close. Just a thought anyway

Happy new years by the way!

Hey man! Sorry, I dont have that image as a higher res. I literally threw it together on the way to a party. Thats given me an idea to do some cool wallpapers tho! Ill see what I can do tomorrow.

I know what you mean with the lighting. I quite liked the idea of him walking into complete darkness, with the main reason for that lighting trigger being that, he is standing inside the blood puddle when the light turns on over it. Ill readjust the action areas tho, and see how the your idea works tho.

There are going to be some areas of the game that are almost in complete darkness.....where you have to walk quite far into a 'dead' room to activate the motion sensors. There is one scene in particular where I'm going to do this... I'm hoping it will make the players move a little... cautiously.

I finished up the Arrivals Hall today. Not to shabby for a days work! I like the idea of a loudspeaker malfunctioning.... I'm thinking something freaky, like a childs' voice reading out propaganda (Science saved my life!), but having it like slowly slow down, till is horribly distorted.
Anyone got any kids that would be willing to contribute some voice work? Fully credited of course.

[marcd2011]

this looks stunning, it really does. Subscribing to this thread now so i know the minute it's available!

Will it be possible to die in the game? And if so, can you make it do a quick save before you enter a screen where you can die so you don't lose your entire progress if you're too stupid to save?

[donatelli]

Glad you're thinking about the loudspeaker idea Pyke. Wish I could help you with the voice-over stuff. The Arrivals Hall looks stunning though, really impressed with the design of it. Every time you post I get more pumped up for this. Love the interaction you have, devs should take a cue from you!

Please, don't stop updating us! Honestly this is my most anticipated adventure game at this point. And after that, your noir-mystery-thriller will take over that spot

[Pyke]

marcd2011

Thanks man. You will definately be able to die, and in some rather grusome ways aswell! Dying wont be often tho...I never really liked the Sierra way of clicking on the wrong thing, and dying. The deaths will be littered throughout the game...not happening often enough to annoy the player-but definitely keeping that sense of danger.

Its actually funny that you mentioned saving the game. Today I'm implementing the save system. I currently have 2 versions of auto save....one every 10 minutes, and one at the opening of each scene. The Auto save will overwrite 6 slots, so you will always have a backtrack of 1 hour of playtime, in addition to the scene save.
Then there are another 7 save slots for you to save whatever you need. I dunno if this is going to be enough...I may increase that number. Thoughts?

donatelli,

Thanks man. The arrivals hall is twice as long as is shown, with another scene switch happening when you exit that one. Still working on the second scene, and then the all-important-for-a-sci-fi-horror-bathroom. I don't know what it is about bathrooms in Sci Fi games? But shit, Doom had one, Dead space has one. Damned if STASIS is going to be left behind!
Design wise I'm still trying to nail down the 'look' of The Groomlake. I want it to have an almost Gothic edge....but not to overpowering. It is a military and scientific installation. But big arches are just awesome.

The interaction really is half the fun of a project like this. I really started STASIS cos I was bored, and needed a creative outlet-so I have no issues with sharing things during the development. That said, I do want to keep the main story a secret, and that is going to be more and more difficult as I venture further into The Groomlake, with the environment (obviously) being so heavily tied into the story...but rest assured, there will always be lots of updates! Some of them may have to have big black CENSORED squares over them tho.

[marcd2011]

The autosave system sounds ideal i've been caught out in a couple of adventures where i didn't realise you could die (most recently The Black Mirror) and because i didn't know you could die, i hadn't saved the game for hours and had to play quite a lot of it again

7 manual slots would be enough for me as i tend to use 2 or 3 saves and overwrite the old ones otherwise i lose track of which one i'm using, but i saw complaints about Gray Matter only having 20 save spots, so i expect some people like to save a lot, perhaps so they can go back and visit specific parts of the game they enjoyed at a later date so it may be worth keeping that in mind. Perhaps you could start a poll thread on this forum to find out what people think is the ideal number?

[Pyke]

Yeah-I read on the '20 save' thing, and thought that it was a bit of a ridiculous thing to complain about. Honestly, who uses more than 20 saves?

Not a bad idea about the poll. I dont want to end up spamming the forum with STASIS related stuff, so ill create the system to be flexible, and perhaps when the website kicks up a bit, Ill put a poll on there.
Honestly, Im not really limited to any number of save slots, except how many I can realistically fit on a screen.

The game is broken up into chapters, so I was thinking of having a menu where you can revisit any chapter that you have completed. Not entirely certain how I would implement that...but if you guys think its a good idea I can always figure it out.

[Pyke]

New blog post with a brick wall I've hit:

http://www.stasisgame.com/more-than-just-adventure/

Im busy making a new construct set (http://www.stasisgame.com/constructing-a-scene-part-2/) for the general room configurations onboard The Groomlake, and have really been looking at other games for inspiration. I think that DOOM 3 really was a groundbreaking game when it came to level design. If not in the layout of the levels, then definately in the art direction.
Something that really sticks out in those levels was the amount of ‘nothing’ details. Every screen had a readout, there were computers running that opened up storage lockers, log books open with interdepartmental memo’s about ‘having a drink with Dave’…all of those things really gelled to create a fantastically immersive environment. The type of living, breathing environment that I imagine for STASIS.
HOWEVER, with STASIS being an adventure game, where everything can mean something…will putting these touches in the game just complicate the matters? I mean, if I have a clipboard that you can pick up and read, and it says something about regular maintenance on the water system to happen every hour-how do I differentiate that from a proper clue for solving a puzzle? If you search a body, and find out that the guys name was Edward-how do I make sure that you know to look for a Edward in the database at a later stage? How do I make the player know that THAT Edward is important, but the Susan that he searched earlier was just for ‘atmosphere’?
Something I am looking at is that certain areas could be bypassed, if you collect certain items that are in locked containers/cupbaords/etc. Those locked items will be opened by finding key card sequences by looking through log books or other computer systems. You dont NEED those items, but they will help you more in certain areas. For instance, one (cliched) puzzle could involve you making a magnet by using copper wire and a nail…whereas in one of the locked containers, there could be a magnet.
Will this detract from the gaming experience? I’m not sure. Perhaps its just a nice way to have multiple solves for a puzzle? Perhaps you had no idea you needed a magnet, until you opened the container, and then went “AHA! A MAGNET!”. But the big question then comes in, is your inventory just going to end up being filled with shit that you picked up, but no longer need? The inventory has an unlimited storage capacity, but for that players sanitys sake I really want to keep the amount of items in the inventory to a manageable amount throughout the game.
I would love to hear what you guys think about these issues. Perhaps you see a solution that I don’t? (making clues blue, and red herrings red was one idea…but that really does seem like I’m treating the players like idiots).
-Chris

Any ideas?