[Schnuffel]

Updated 25th June 2008:
The English version of Dirty Split is finally available at http://www.dreamagination.org/

Have fun

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Hello there,

I'd like to announce my work on Dirty Split, a detective story set in the early 60ies. Alan Baxter, a private investigator, is commissioned to investigate the murder of a plastic surgeon. A prime suspect is soon found and everything seems to fall in place, but somehow there seems to be a lot more to the story...

Inspired by the work of Josh Agle a.k.a. SHAG this game tries to revive the buzzing and stylish life in the 60ies. And to be fun to play along the way
The game will be released on my website for free download, and maybe also in an extended full speech version + extras on CD at cost price (depending on how well it is received).

About 40% of the game are completely playable and I'm aiming for 100% in march / april 2008. Since I'm working on this alone and in my spare time it might take a while.

Screenshots:






Key features:

• surprising original plot

• resolution of 800 x 600 (with a couple of scrolling screens)

• about 23 screens

• 19 interactive characters

• german and english version

Actually, I'm looking for a talented music composer to lend the game some catchy tunes that fit the style of the era. Something jazzy, funky, classy, yet unobtrusive. Think 'Ocean's Eleven', Nicola Conte, Ursula 1000 or Pink Martini, for example.

- Uwe

[JKR]

Awesome, awesome art. I love the work of SHAG, I recently almost bought a book of his (but it was too expensive with the holidays coming up).

Good luck with it! Will there be a demo in English? I mean of the voice-version. Otherwise I'll be sure to download the game when it's done. Make sure you let us know here when it is!

[Schnuffel]

Thanks
There won't be any demo at all since the game is quite compact itself. It's 'only' 23 rooms, after all. But yeah, I hope I'll find suitable voice actors for the english version. Finding voice actors is hard in itself since many of the game's characters are in their 40ies or 50ies, whereas most (free) voice talents are in their teens or 20ies and sound too young. I wonder how that'll work out.

By the way, your 'Welcome back' cartoon was very funny It reminded me heavily of the brainstorming sessions we used to have while designing another adventure game. This also explains why I'm doing this project alone and without a team to brainstorm with, heh.

[JKR]

Originally Posted by Schnuffel

Thanks
There won't be any demo at all since the game is quite compact itself. It's 'only' 23 rooms, after all. But yeah, I hope I'll find suitable voice actors for the english version. Finding voice actors is hard in itself since many of the game's characters are in their 40ies or 50ies, whereas most (free) voice talents are in their teens or 20ies and sound too young. I wonder how that'll work out.

By the way, your 'Welcome back' cartoon was very funny It reminded me heavily of the brainstorming sessions we used to have while designing another adventure game. This also explains why I'm doing this project alone and without a team to brainstorm with, heh.

Ha ha, I totally know what you mean. Working with other people can be really rough. I was the lead artist for a game being developed by another studio, and did all this work, and then they canceled the project. I was really mad.

Anyway, keep at it. Obviously you've seen my work at FredtheMonkey.com, so if there's a character that needs a voice and I can help (and it isn't a ton of lines) let me know and maybe I'll have some free time when the project is nearing completion.

[Schnuffel]

Originally Posted by JKR

I was the lead artist for a game being developed by another studio, and did all this work, and then they canceled the project. I was really mad.

Bummer

I hope you were at least lucky enough to recycle some of your artwork for another project. Or at least for your portfolio so it wasn't all for nothing.

Originally Posted by JKR

... if there's a character that needs a voice and I can help (and it isn't a ton of lines) let me know and maybe I'll have some free time when the project is nearing completion.

I'll remember that, thanks

[JohnGreenArt]

Wow, this looks awesome. Are you using an engine for it, like AGS?

Will there be a Mac (non-Intel) version?

[Schnuffel]

Yes, I'm using the Wintermute Engine. I figured I could write my own engine, but since developing the content for a game is already a daunting task developing an engine for it as well would be overkill. Besides, Wintermute offers pretty much everything I need and more

Unfortunately this means that there won't be a non-windows version for now. But since there are windows emulators and virtual machines both for linux and mac I guess 'non-windows' isn't such a strict death sentence anymore.

[LuigiHann]

Very nice art. The screenshots did remind me of SHAG before I even saw that you mentioned it, but the characters still have a distinct style.

Not much else to add until I see some more.

[Schnuffel]

Okay, you'll get to see some more then

[Erwin_Br]

I love those characters!

--Erwin

[JohnGreenArt]

I love the out of focus foreground elements. Very well done!

[LuigiHann]

Very nice, very nice. Some of the gradient shading in the slot machine image (particularly those pillars in the background) takes away from the nice flat look- the second and third images do a much better job of keeping it subtle. I really dig the chandeliers, though.

[Schnuffel]

Here are a couple more screenshots. At this point in the game it'll get a bit darker, but there'll be some very... 'feminine' accents

[JohnGreenArt]

Looking great, as usual!

[Schnuffel]

Thanks

Originally Posted by JKR

Will there be a demo in English? I mean of the voice-version. Otherwise I'll be sure to download the game when it's done.

Actually I'm thinking about scrapping the additional CD version altogether and releasing the full version(s) with speech as a free download only. I'm not doing this for the money and I'm more interested in seeing the reaction to this game than making a profit. Which means I wouldn't charge more than the cost for a blank CD + packaging + shipping, anyway. But the more I think about it, the more of an unnecessary hassle it seems to me (especially international shipping).

About speech: I just posted over at voiceactingalliance.com for the english version, in case anyone wants to participate.

[Schnuffel]

I've thrown together a quick video that details the creation process behind one of the backgrounds. And it shows a bit of the actual game in motion: http://www.dreamagination.org/

Enjoy

[JohnGreenArt]

Awesome video! Cool to see a bit of it in action.

[Schnuffel]

I need some proofreaders and betatesters for the English version of the game. Anyone interested?

[Joony]

If you're still looking for proof readers for the English version, I'd be more than happy to help. I'm a native English speaker. Just let me know.

[Schnuffel]

Thanks for the offer I've already found a couple of people, though.