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Work in Progress / Project Squared

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DrEnzyme
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Posted: 14th Feb 2008 04:31 Edited at: 5th Jun 2008 14:21

The intro post was last edited on 05/06/08

I'M RELYING ON PUBLIC OPINION TO SUPPORT THIS PROJECT AND KEEP IT ALIVE. PLEASE LEAVE A COMMENT AND SUPPORT ME ON MY WAY TO WORLD DOMINATION! I MEAN... THE OTHER THING... WHAT WAS I TALKING ABOUT AGAIN?

Intro:

Project Squared is an action RPG created and designed by Alpha Strain Studios (of which I'm the only member). I'm creating all the music, code, storyline, characters , design, images, 3d art and sound effects. When P2 is complete I'm going to distribute it as freeware on my website.

Plot Synopsis:

Life in 'The Square' is happy and peaceful. The village is taken care of by a rich entrepreneur named Arthur Quinn. Quinn is the forefather of modern robotics; his company, Quinn Industries, are the sole producers of Q-bots, androids made to improve the lives of those who buy them. The Square's inhabitants all have jobs at Quinn Industries and are well paid and cared for. Q-bots are shipped all over the cube (not globe) and have put The Square on the map...

The Square's inhabitants are all various animals, similar to what you would find in games like 'Animal Crossing'. They are cute and carefree. Indeed, it seems that life in The Square couldn't get any better...

But all this starts to change...

On a dark and stormy night, the murdered body of Arthur Quinn is found in an alleyway just outside of his house. It is the first murder in the history of the Cube. Seeds of mistrust and chaos start to spread like wildfire throughout the village. All exits out of The Square are cut off until the murder can be solved. Meanwhile, with no leader to guide it, Quinn industries has fallen into ruin. The production of Q-bots has ceased and all the townsfolk have lost their jobs.

You are the last Q-bot off the production line. It is your duty to solve the murder of Arthur Quinn, unravel the mystery of 'Project Squared' and restore peace to The Square...

Checklist:


Goodies:

This is the goodies section. This is where I'll be posting all sorts of interesting tidbits that have something to do with Project Squared.

Music

Video 1 - a look at the town

Screenies:

Screenshot 1
Screenshot 2 (same as 1)
Screenshot 3
Screenshot 4
Screenshot 5
Screenshot 6
Screenshot 7
Screenshot 8
Screenshot 9
Screenshot 10
Screenshot 11
Screenshot 12
Screenshot 13
Screenshot 14
Screenshot 15
Screenshot 16
Screenshot 17

AndrewT
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Posted: 14th Feb 2008 04:44
Very cute, I like it. This looks like it could be really fun.
tha_rami
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Posted: 14th Feb 2008 05:07
Haha, looks cool! Can't wait to see more!


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DrEnzyme
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Posted: 14th Feb 2008 06:13
So far so good. I'll try to get something more to show everyone soon.

"There is no end, only new beginnings."
Buck1000
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Posted: 14th Feb 2008 06:53
Haha, this will be cool.
DrEnzyme
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Posted: 14th Feb 2008 12:02
Here's a small update for everyone.

I've been spending all night drawing up exact scale diagrams of 'The Square'. The finished town will be 200 by 300 DBP units. To give you an idea of the scale this represents, the head of the Red Q-bot in the screenshot is exactly 2 DBP units wide.

It might seem like the town is small, but in reality it isn't. The full list of buildings in 'The Square' is actually quite substantial. Among other things, there are:

* 4 multi storey houses
* 2 mansions
* A weapon shop and an armor shop
* A police station
* A cafe
* A plaza area
* A chapel connected to a cemetary
* A morgue
* A large field
* The mayor's house
* A cave in the back of The Square

And of course...

The Quinn building.

The Quinn building is exactly 100 storeys high, so it's unsurprising that most of the gameplay will occur there.

"There is no end, only new beginnings."
Jerok
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Posted: 14th Feb 2008 16:26
Sound great. This forum needs more action rpgs.(too many fps's in my opinion.) The soryline though sounds almost exactly like that of I-Robot if you have ever seen it.
DrEnzyme
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Posted: 14th Feb 2008 23:31
LOL That's exactly what's been said to me before. Yes, it sort of does sound like I-robot.

The crucial difference between the robots in that and the robots in this is that all the robots in my game are built with a head and a heart, just like sunny. They have a lot more free will, but are still very much bound to their owners. If a Q-bot doesn't have an owner, it has to destroy itself.

"There is no end, only new beginnings."
Jerok
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Posted: 15th Feb 2008 03:14
Quote: "If a Q-bot doesn't have an owner, it has to destroy itself."


Ouch wouldn't want to be one of them.

You could make an interesting plot twist by not entirely revealing who the main character's owner is until the end.
DrEnzyme
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Posted: 15th Feb 2008 08:36
Well actually, the main character is unique in that he/she/it is the first Q-bot ever to be produced without an owner.

Technically, your owner is Arthur Quinn, but since he's dead your only job is to carry out his dying wish, to solve his murder.

"There is no end, only new beginnings."
Insert Name Here
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Posted: 15th Feb 2008 15:58
Oah, it'd be cool to have a mystery about that...

You can write crap in DBPro as well as DBC - it just crashes quicker! -TDK

Valkynaz
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Posted: 15th Feb 2008 18:37
I'm one of the worlds biggest RPG buffs! I can't wait to play this! Assuming that you are saying the only place to go is "The Square", I like the way it will be a linear area but still a "free roamable" city.
I only wish you luck in this project.

DrEnzyme
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Posted: 16th Feb 2008 03:23
This is exactly what I like. Lots of positive feedback. It's this sort of enthusiasm that motivates and inspires me to keep moving forward.

I've just added a picture of the cafe that I made today (Check it out, I LUV FEEDBACK!). I was pretty pleased with how it turned out. All the textures are taken from the DBP/Dark Matter texture librarys and the model and UV map was made in Blender. The finished product is only only 264 kb, including the UV map. Not bad for someone who's hoping to keep the final download under 100MB.

"There is no end, only new beginnings."
Corey
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Posted: 16th Feb 2008 05:34
This looks really cool
DrEnzyme
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Posted: 25th Feb 2008 03:48 Edited at: 25th Feb 2008 23:30
I was thinking long and hard about what I should include in this update. Even now, I'm still unsure if I'm doing the right thing.

The reason I'm so torn apart is that I've just put two different pieces of music from the game onto this thread. The Tango of the Square and a piece of Boss Music. Both of these have been lovingly and painstakingly composed by myself, and I would be absolutely heartbroken if anyone stole them. So, I'm running a little experiment. If I'm satisfied that people aren't stealing my music, I'll put more pieces up here to listen to. If my insecuritys prove founded, I'll remove all the music from this thread. Fair enough?
Oh, and I'm not trying to brag here. I'm not saying that my music is worth stealing. However, my music something that I've put a lot of time and effort into and it's a very personal thing to me.

In other news, I'm still working on the town. I've finished the Cafe and I'm working on a Police Station and the Plaza area. I'll get some more screenies up when I've got something to show.

(Sorry for the wall of words. You'll probably have to get used to them though if you're interested in this game.)

EDIT: Keep the feedback coming. Tell me what you want, what's good and what's wrong.

"There is no end, only new beginnings."
DrEnzyme
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Posted: 1st Mar 2008 03:40
Here's a little update for you. I've been hard at work trying to build The Square. I've created a couple of new buildings: The morgue, the Police Station and a little grassy area for people to walk around. All the Buildings are collidable and the player changes height when he walks on the grass.

Here's a pic:



"There is no end, only new beginnings."
Xenocythe
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Posted: 1st Mar 2008 05:03
Look great, keep up the work mate

I do advice you to scale the texture down on the ground a alot.

Learn and use the scale object texture command.


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DrEnzyme
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Posted: 1st Mar 2008 06:50
@ Xenosythe: Oh, the ground isn't finished yet. I just put a textured plane in there so I could see where the ground is. The plain is the exact size of the playable village, so it's good for showing perspective. Other than that it's pretty primative.

I was thinking of two different approaches for the ground. Making a matrix with 10 by 10 units and texturing each square -

or

- Doing what you said and making a scaled texture plain for the ground. I would then cover the ground with other plains for things like sidewalks and roads.

What do you think?

"There is no end, only new beginnings."
tha_rami
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Posted: 1st Mar 2008 15:32
I think Xenocythe is spelled with a "c" and not an "s". Independently, I think the matrix is a bad idea in most 3D games, so if you could model it or something, that would be infinitely better.


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DrEnzyme
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Posted: 1st Mar 2008 23:47
Hmmm... I was sort of leaning towards that as well. Also, I don't want to mix matrices/terrains with .x models, so most likely I'm just going to use .x models.

BTW, does anyone know where I can find a good repository of free tileable textures? I need a plain-white-painted wood texture that's tileable for the chapel and marquee.

"There is no end, only new beginnings."
Jimpo
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Posted: 2nd Mar 2008 02:46
That last screenshot has a lot of empty space. Are you going to be putting other buildings in between? If not, maybe you could fill it with plants.

DrEnzyme
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Posted: 2nd Mar 2008 03:56
You sort of have to keep in mind that this project is in it's very early stages. I've got a whole list of buildings that I still haven't finished yet. There's a checklist at the top of the page that shows all the buildings I've still got to make.

I'm going off my exact scale blueprints as I'm building the town. All the buildings are in their right places but there are a lot of buildings that I need to put in between them.

I just got an idea for improving the blueprints... Maybe I should put a dock in there somewhere. That way the player could explore various ships that pull into port. How does that sound?

"There is no end, only new beginnings."
Jimpo
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Posted: 2nd Mar 2008 16:34
Quote: "I've got a whole list of buildings that I still haven't finished yet."

Sounds good.

Quote: "Maybe I should put a dock in there somewhere. That way the player could explore various ships that pull into port. How does that sound?"

That's a really good idea. Maybe rare merchants will pull into port every now and then? You could have a lot of extra events happen based on what ship pulled in for the day.

DrEnzyme
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Posted: 3rd Mar 2008 00:15 Edited at: 3rd Mar 2008 00:16
Quote: "That's a really good idea. Maybe rare merchants will pull into port every now and then? You could have a lot of extra events happen based on what ship pulled in for the day."


That's sort of what I was thinking too. It would add a little bit more interest into a game that only consists of a few buildings and a tower. I'll put it in the 'maybe' pile. I don't want to flood myself with ideas. I need to keep P2 nice and simple.

Here's another good question: I really like the piece "Dance Macabre" By Saint Saens. I was thinking of using it as title music for P2. Would it count as stealing if I made my own arrangement of Dance Macabre and used it in P2?

"There is no end, only new beginnings."
DrEnzyme
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Posted: 3rd Mar 2008 05:11
Just testing my new sig

A Tea Spoon
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Posted: 3rd Mar 2008 06:41 Edited at: 3rd Mar 2008 06:49
i like your style.

this is looking awesome
as for the music, it probably would count as stealing if you made a peace in the exact same way, but if it sounds a little different, then it would be your work of art. people probably wont care any way, just do a remix sorta thing.

P.S. i actually played dance macabre in band last year, i think it is a perfect fit.

DrEnzyme
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Posted: 3rd Mar 2008 10:46
See, that's what I was thinking too. The irony of having Dance Macabre as a theme tune is perfectly suited to the whole "murder mystery" thing and the music fits very nicely with my style of composition.

I tried to play around with reflections and lighting today. I found that the lighting in DBP is -to be frank- crap. So, for now I'm just going to leave the lighting alone and keep working on the town.

Reflections were problematic too. I can't figure out how to change the plain of reflection... It's really weird. Any Ideas? Solutions?

Also, Don't forget that I have a list of things I need help with at the top of the page.

DrEnzyme
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Posted: 6th Mar 2008 04:30
Hey Tea Spoon (or anyone else for that matter), you wouldn't happen to have a copy of the score for Dance Macabre would you? I've been looking around for something to transcribe from and it's very difficult to pick out all the parts by ear and arrange them. Usually when I do an arrangement I either do it completely different from the original or I'm able to pick the tune from memory and transcribe it, but for Dance Macabre I want to stay quite close to the original, especially when the music hits its climax around 5.30....

I'm still not sure whether It's alright to use this piece or not though... Here's what I think:

I don't think Saint Saens is going to mind me using his music, considering he's dining with Elvis and Einstein in cloud central right about now, but I don't think the Philidelphia Orchestra want me using their recording of DM for free.

So, with this in mind, I think that the music itself isn't copyright but the recordings are. So, if I make my own arrangement, I should be ok

Any thoughts on that?

Profit
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Posted: 6th Mar 2008 05:00 Edited at: 6th Mar 2008 05:01
Quote: "Hey Tea Spoon (or anyone else for that matter), you wouldn't happen to have a copy of the score for Dance Macabre would you?"

Does this help?
Saint-Saens, Camille: Dance Macabre

DrEnzyme
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Posted: 6th Mar 2008 05:28
A little, I'm looking for the full Orchestral score. Does anyone have that?

Profit
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Posted: 6th Mar 2008 22:21
You could try downloading a MIDI of it and viewing it in an editor such as Anvil.

DrEnzyme
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Posted: 7th Mar 2008 00:29
Ah, you read my mind. I found a copy of the midi and opened it up in the editor that I use... Not that I'm going to be making MIDI music mind you. The editor I use can do both MIDI music and what can only be described as "rendered music".

So, I'm going to get started on that arrangement shortly.

I'm quite surprised, this is the most popular thread I've started. Keep the comments and views coming. I might upload something special when I get to 1K views or 50 posts.

DrEnzyme
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Posted: 7th Mar 2008 04:12
Here's another small update:

I decided to test out the max framerate because I was afraid that constantly calling sparky's collision DLL might be slowing the game down (I call it seperately for each building I make). When I set the framerate to 0, I got 1000 frames per second !!!! So, if you were worrying about the system requirements, you can stop now (I have an Nvidia Geforce 6600 BTW).

I'm aiming to keep the framerate above 60 at all times. This way, the gameplay will be very smooth and It should play on just about any computer...

Hmm, I got this computer a year ago, and at that time the 6600 was pretty kickarse.... Now they're up to 9900. Think what numbers they'll be up to by next year...

tha_rami
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Posted: 7th Mar 2008 10:18
14850, obviously.


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DrEnzyme
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Posted: 7th Mar 2008 10:31
Quote: "14850, obviously."


Actually, I think by that time they'll have run out of numbers... They'll have to start using hex

Randomly interesting fact: I've started my arrangement of DM. I'm about 1 minute into it, which isn't bad for a days work. But I just found something weird. When I try to add a clarinet, all the Pizzicato strings turn into normal Strings. If I take away the clarinet, they turn back into Pizz Strings...

I don't know what sorts of clarinet players they have in Proffessional Orchestras but I'm pretty sure they don't go around enforcing a zero tolerance policy on pizzicato strings...

Actually, that would explain why they keep clarinet players in cages...

Long story short, no clarinet. Sorry people

P.S, if you've never played an instrument and/or have never been in a band, that probably didn't make any sense to you what-so-ever. If you have played an instrument and/or have been in a band... That probably didn't make any sense to you what-so-ever.

tha_rami
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Posted: 7th Mar 2008 15:21
I must admit... that didn't make any sense what-so-ever.


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DrEnzyme
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Posted: 8th Mar 2008 00:26
Quote: "I must admit... that didn't make any sense what-so-ever."


Then I have succeeded

It's hard to say anything coherant at midnight after you've been working on the same thing all day. Especially when exfalibi Highren gibble, lest and if jion combusdy?



tha_rami
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Posted: 8th Mar 2008 07:05
Yeah, true, exfabili Highren gibble, lest and if jion combusdy makes it pretty hard. Gibble lest combusdy?


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DrEnzyme
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Posted: 8th Mar 2008 07:49
Exactly.

I'm 2.00 through now. Only 5 more minutes of composition and I'll have the whole thing done...

Great, that shouldn't take very long

Pet A Mizzle
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Posted: 8th Mar 2008 17:35
This looks awesome! Ican't wait to test it out with demo's I hope!

~Petamizzle.
DrEnzyme
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Posted: 8th Mar 2008 23:54
Quote: "This looks awesome! Ican't wait to test it out with demo's I hope! "


Thanks!

I'm not sure when I'll have a demo out. Probably sometime after I finish the town.

Pet A Mizzle
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Posted: 9th Mar 2008 02:21
Okay, glad to hear I think it's REally awesome! BUt how did you animate the Q-Bots without the blocks connecting?

~Petamizzle.
DrEnzyme
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Posted: 9th Mar 2008 02:37
Quote: "Okay, glad to hear I think it's REally awesome! BUt how did you animate the Q-Bots without the blocks connecting?
"

That's a very interesting question.

Well, as you may or may not know, I use a program called "Blender" to make all the media I use. In Blender, bones are represented as invisible objects, rather than meshs... Just like in real life, one end of the bone acts as an anchor and one acts as a pivot. Thus, I essentially created an invisible skeleton for the Q bot and "glued" all the meshs to the invisible bones.

It's a little more complex than that, but it gives you an idea.

I'm sure there are more compatible media programs to use with Dark Basic though. Blender was first pick because it's free.

BTW, tell me if you want to learn how to use Blender (this applies to everyone). I've created an intro tutorial for absolute beginners and if you want I can link you to it.

Pet A Mizzle
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Posted: 9th Mar 2008 03:55
Wow what a co-incident I am trying to learn Blender! I will take you up on that offer if you don't mind!

~Petamizzle.
DrEnzyme
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Posted: 9th Mar 2008 04:14
All right then, the link to my website is here

The website is pretty basic, so you should be able to navigate to the blender tutorial pretty easily.

Keep in mind, Blender takes years of experience to master. While the basics can be learnt in a couple of months (if you're a quick learner), the more advanced features of blender will take quite a while to get used to.

With that in mind, have a go at the first tutorial. If you like it, post here and I might make another tutorial... Hmm... I might actually have to start up a new thread for Blender...

Pet A Mizzle
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Posted: 9th Mar 2008 05:32
*Cries.*

Year! Dx

~Petamizzle.
Pet A Mizzle
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Posted: 9th Mar 2008 05:36
That turoial was very simple, but was very good! Altough I knew all that allready. xD

~Petamizzle.
DrEnzyme
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Posted: 9th Mar 2008 06:34
Oh, OK. I did say that it's supposed to be for absolute beginners. If I make more tutorials they'll be better than that one. A lot more fun as well.

But I'd have to have a bigger audience before I made another tutorial. I'm not going to put 2 hours worth of work into a tutorial that's only going to be viewed by two people when I could spend that same amount of time working on P2. If you find other people who are interested in learning Blender, tell me and I might consider making more tuts.

tha_rami
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Posted: 9th Mar 2008 07:30
Jeez, that monkey has the same name as my girlfriend...


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DrEnzyme
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Posted: 9th Mar 2008 08:59
Quote: "Jeez, that monkey has the same name as my girlfriend..."


Lol, I wouldn't tell your girlfriend that.

So, rami, I take it that you're interested in learning blender too?

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