Messages

Exciting news!
I launched a kickstarter for the project today... and it's already fully funded!

I kept the goal quite modest because I had a couple of very specific goals in mind, but I have to admit I'm really surprised that it's funded quite so quickly!

Amazing, thank you so much! I really appreciate it!

Ahhhhhh yeah, I have a gui with some clickable buttons at the corner of the screen which is visible in most rooms.

Thank you for your work on it, I really like it! 

Hi all,

I've been using the VerbCoin template which comes with AGS for a game, and I've got to hold my hands up and say that I don't really understand how it works, at least not in enough depth to troubleshoot it! I've generally tried to leave the verb coin scripting well alone beyond cosmetic changes and hoped for the best.

Some friends who have play tested my game have had this popup:




I haven't been able to get this message to occur myself which makes it difficult to know exactly what circumstances it's been happening, and it seems to have happened at different points of the games for different people.

Here is the line of the VerbCoin code it's refering to



If anyone has any pointers for what might be the issue here, or things I could try to look into for more clues about the issue, that would be so helpful! 
Thank you!

Thanks! I hope so, the gameplay is the bit I'm most nervous about! 

Thank you for all the lovely comments and support, everyone!

It's been a busy few months for this project since my last post, although I can't say much development actually got done!

I was invited to a conference at the British Library to talk about my game and Sherlock Holmes games in general, and the problems of adaptation in interactive narratives.
This was more than a little intimidating because I feel like I don't know a lot about game design (especially the lingo!), and a lot of the audience did. It was a great few days though.
I got a free sneak peek at their current exhibition on digital storytelling, which I definitely recommend checking out if you're in London this Summer!

I've been scrambling over the past month because I'm planning a Kickstarter campaign for late September and really like to take part in Steam NextFest in October, which means pulling together a "proper" demo, and wrangling Steam's convoluted back end to get all the files working. Just as everything was going great my computer died and I wasted a few weeks trying to get it repaired, before realising I was going to give in and buy a replacement.

One of the best decisions I feel I made was commissioning an excellent artist to create some gorgeous cover art for me which I could use for all the graphics I need across Steam, Itch and Kickstarter.
I've been doing all the artwork in the game myself and I feel like I could have whipped something up, but being able to outsource it so I could think about other things was such a load off my mind, and I'm so much happier with the final product than I think I would have been if I'd done the artwork myself.

I've also got a brand new trailer, woo!

You can follow the Kickstarter here!

These are amazing! Its not something I've ever thought to do before, but Ill definitely think about it now!

I'm interested in fan bookbinding and this has the same kind of appeal - I love things that are carefully crafted by fans to make digital objects exist physically! 

It's been a while since my last update, so here's what I've been up to!

I completed the scripting to the extent that I could get through the game from start to finish. In reality there is soooo much more work to do in that area, right now it's just the bare bones, but I thought I'd switch tasks and treat myself to completing some backgrounds and character art! It's really motivating to finally get to see how this game might look when it's finished.

Spooky stuff! I love the art style and the premise of the game sounds really interesting.

[Time for another update!]

Time for another update!

Prologue complete, and I'm in the process of roughly scripting the whole game, mostly with placeholder graphics. I want to get it into a position where I can show it to some trusted folks to see if the puzzles and pacing work for them.
I did have fun fleshing out this particular room in detail. It's get a different, dreamy vibe to the rest of the game and I had a lot of fun playing around with lighting levels and effects.



I've also made a Steam page, which was a wild ride - so. many. graphics! But at least now I have a place to send people looking to wishlist.

Wow, this is absolutely gorgeous and so relevant to my interests    (Is that a certain Mr Doyle I see?)

[Upping the resolution]

I thought it was about time I give a bit of an update!

Upping the resolution
I tried really hard with my demo to find clear, readable pixel fonts however one of the repeated comments from my playtesters was that they were having problems reading it, with some people with dyslexia finding it especially difficult. I think seasoned retro gaming fans are used to pixel fonts, but for folks who aren't it can be a bit of a leap.

I realised I wasn't going to be happy until I came up with a solution, so after some testing I've upped the resolution of the game from 230 x 180 to 640 x 360 - not the artwork, but the game itself, which is allowing me to use smooth sans serif fonts. Perhaps it's sacrificing style for practicality, but I actually quite like how it looks? And it's given me the benefit that if I do want to use higher resolution for certain elements (I'm thinking specifically some UI things) I can.
I wouldn't have wanted to do this any further along in development, but since I'm reworking a lot of the content in the demo anyway it it was managable.




A new game mechanic
In my demo I played with the idea that examining people and objects would open up dialogue options, so if you look at the ink on Watson's hands, you can talk to him about what he's been writing.
The problem I found when applying this to other parts of the game is that the cause and effect isn't always obvious to the player. I was hoping they were following along and making connections themselves, but there's nothing in the gameplay to facilitate that. 

So, I'm trying a game mechanic where you collect 'facts' which can then be combined to produce effects in the game, like opening up dialogue or allowing you to examine something more closely.

This is effectively just a second inventory screen.


(I have a feeling I'm going to keep tweaking the design, but it works for now!)

Adding this mechanic also made me have to incorporate it into my puzzle dependency chart.



Next steps!

The next task I've set myself is to set up all of the game locations and make it so the player character can walk between them. At this stage I'm resisting the urge to get stuck into artwork - that would be staying in my comfort zone and potentially wasting time making backgrounds and animations that I don't use,
So right now all my backgrounds look like this:


And all my characters are floating around in a ghostly way for want of walking animations   

I played the demo and enjoyed the relaxed tone of it. As far as the demo goes, as there's no real case yet, it will appeal to people familiar with the characters. Fortunately, that's most of us. 

I especially liked the close-ups where Holmes could make his observations and prepare for deductions later on. You also nail the characters pretty good. While they can be interpreted differently, I'm all aboard with how they behave here. Nice that Mycroft was included, too.

The art is beautiful. At the moment where Holmes stepped outside the cottage, the colour of his jacket and the colour of the wall were a bit similar, so I actually didn't see where he was at first. Other than that, you'll hear only praise from me.

The ending

Spoiler

reminded me of thoughts expressed in my own silly little Batman game Prep Time. So of course, I liked it. 

[close]

I'm really pleased you enjoyed it, thank you for the feedback!

I had to get Mycroft in there! Since he doesn't actually appear much in the original stories I feel quite free to characterise him however I want which is really fun, much less daunting than writing Holmes and Watson.

The ending...

Spoiler

was originally just me joking around, I thought it would be funny to have a fourth wall break, but somehow became quite sincere. I'm trying to decide how I feel about having a similar ending in the real game - fortunately I think I have a loooong time to think about it!

[close]

I've completed my little 'proof of concept' demo! This was something I wanted to put together for myself - a few rooms, a few objects and a few characters which have let me teach myself the basics of using AGS and get a feel for the kinds of mechanics I might like to use for a longer game.

I've put it up on itch.io, since a fair number of people have been interested in it!
https://jabbage.itch.io/the-beekeepers-picnic-poc

I'm sure seasoned AGSers will find a lot of this very familiar!

Hi Jabbage,
Your art is simply beautiful. When I saw that the violin is interactive and then saw the bee hives this scene from Sherlock Holmes immediately came into my head: //wSAGkwpPC8Q

I know these are flies, but still...

Ooh that's such a fun idea! I've got to admit I haven't worked a way to fit the violin into a puzzle yet, but it felt wrong not to have one!

Thank you! I've got to admit the puzzles (and coming up with a satisfying mystery story in general!) are the part I'm most intimidated about at the moment.

Hello all!
I've been lurking here for a few months and I think I'm finally ready to jump in and say hello.

My storytelling medium of choice tends to be comics, but I recently got the itch to try something new. I've always wanted to have a go at making point and click adventure games as a fan of the genre and I've known about AGS for a long long time, so I figured that now is the time to give it a try. I have limited coding experience but fortunately I'm finding that AGS is at just the right level for me!

Great to meet you all! 

[The Beekeeper's Picnic]

The Beekeeper's Picnic

It is the 1920s, and in the sleepy Sussex village of Fulworth, an elderly beekeeper (who is definitely NOT the world's greatest detective... any more) is trying to arrange a pleasant clifftop picnic for his friend Dr Watson. The only problem is that a series of pesky murderous mysteries keep getting in the way.

A retro-inspired cosy point and click adventure and mystery(ish) game lovingly inspired by the Sherlock Holmes stories by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

There is a kickstarter campaign underway right now!(Fully funded, hooray!)


Screenshots:








Current Progress:
Story--  90%
Puzzles-- 90%
Graphics--  70%
Scripting -- 50%
Music/Sound-- 10%


Release Date:
Planning for Q2 2024 at the moment!


Updates

23/10/22 - I've unleased my 'proof of concept' demo on the world! A few rooms, a few characters, and me trying out a few game mechanisms and teaching myself how to use AGS.
I put it up on itch.io since a few people were interested in seeing it.
https://jabbage.itch.io/the-beekeepers-picnic-poc
I've also mapped out the story and created some puzzle dependancy charts. I'm sure there will be lots of tweaks along the way, but it's nice to have a roadmap to follow! 

24/11/22 - I've taken what I learned from the demo and now I'm in the process of blocking out the prologue of the game.
I'm leaving the artwork for now since for me that's the pleasant, easy bit which I could happily sink a lot of time into (only to find myself with lots of nice artwork and no game!)

21/01/23 - Prologue complete, and I'm in the process of roughly scripting the whole game, mostly with placeholder graphics. I want to get it into a position where I can show it to some trusted folks to see if the puzzles and pacing work for them, before I start adding any fancy extras.
I've also made a Steam page, which was a wild ride - so. many. graphics!

01/05/23 - The game is now vaguely play-able from start to finish, with lots of placeholder graphics and text.
I'm finally letting myself have fun making backgrounds and character art!