The Apartment - Demo Out Now

[PsychicHeart]

INTRODUCTION
Hey, i am working on an adventure game titled 'The Apartment'.
STORY
You live at DreadinPaiment Apartments. All is going well until somebody steals your beer the day when you are having a big party, and with no booze, it'll be a crap party.
So, you must get the beer back, navigating through your apartment.
FEATURES
*3 Playable Characters
* Dozens of Wacky faces.
* Over 50 rooms.

SCREENSHOTS


The apartment where you live.


The room of your slazy landlord, Micko.

DEMO
Go down to download the demo, which features the intro and all of Level 1.

Click Here edit by scotch: fixed link to avoid posts about it.

Well, any feedback would be much appreciated.
-Blake

[Krazy]

Why do all the characters have awkward white lines around them? Also don't make each line of dialouge an incomplete setance, that's just awkward and annoying. Each new line should have at least 1 or two complete sentances. You should post graphic stuff in the Critics lounge, rather than jokes, and get some tips on improvment.    Ohh yeah,  and the player is WAY too slow.

[Darth Mandarb]

Oh shock, another game ...

I suppose this means that Tuner City, Sonic Quest, Silver City, Overload: The Infection, and HotHands are all cancelled/dropped?

Is it impossible for you to spend an extra 3 minutes to refine your graphics?

You have white lines (of unfilled sloppiness) surrounding the doors.

The door handles are at eye level.

The characters have square heads with no details.

There are extra black lines sticking off of them.

The flat guy (not a typo, I mean FLAT) laying on the floor on the brown square thing, has no neck and a floating head.

You have started a new project every month since March.

What will next month's new project will be when this one is abandoned I wonder ...

You seriously need to stop this.

Spend more than 10 seconds slopping together backgrounds just to meet the forum's rules and restrictions. 

Take the time to develope something solid before just throwing it all together and making, yet another, post in here.

I promise you, if we don't see a post by you for a few months while you're working on your game, we won't miss you.

[Mozesh]

I totally agree with darth, you keep making games of wich are all cancelled (I think)
And the graphics are just...like you spent not even one minute of drawing in paint.
The doors have all different heights and the caracters are just....c'mon you can do better than that. Please think about what game you want to make, than rethink it and spend a good amount of time on the graphics.
EDIT:
About the game, because of it looks I quite playing, of wich the esc button doesnt work. (If I remember correctly that esc was for quiting)
And all the speech text colors are all the same making it difficult to see who saying something.

[CoffeeBob]

I've always wanted to tell you this, but I was afraid that I might receive a warning if I did. Oh well, here goes;
Your graphics are HORRIBLE! You really should spend more than 5 seconds on your backgrounds, characters etc. If you don't improve your art... Uhm, "skills", no one will ever play your games. I won't at least, I cant stand those extremly paintish graphics that have no detail or style. It looks like something I would draw when I was five years old.
And you really shouldn't do more than two projects at once. I know what it's like to do four projects at the same time, and trust me, nothing turns out good at all.

[passer-by]

Your graphics are HORRIBLE! You really should spend more than 5 seconds on your backgrounds, characters etc. If you don't improve your art... Uhm, "skills", no one will ever play your games. I won't at least, I cant stand those extremly paintish graphics that have no detail or style. It looks like something I would draw when I was five years old.

Not that I disagree, I like playing nice games, nicely scripted and nicely painted. But I was thinking, if Flukeblake is the age he says, and ha sthe lack of experience he says, this is the standard of art I would expect, especially when using computer programs. (My paintings, at least, look very different when handrawn).
What is more, not all the people who play games are over 15. Smaller children might like something simpler, if Flukeblake quits starting new projects and put some effort in the ones he already have in progress. (Hey, Fluke, don't take me as an example! :-[Ã,  )Even if it's not presentable, it would be a game with lots of effortÃ,  put in it.
Unless, of course, there is a given quality standard.

And you really shouldn't do more than two projects at once. I know what it's like to do four projects at the same time, and trust me, nothing turns out good at all.

Seconded.

[PsychicHeart]

wow. that....wow.
okay, for Darth:

1. I've said this before but i'll say it again. TUNER CITY IS STILL IN PRODUCTION! Tuner City is a team project, and The Apartment is being made by me solo.

2. For copyright reasons i cannot do sonic quest.

3. Silver City had too many bugs.

4.OverLoad was crippled by a virus and...

5. Hothands was my first game, and i made it when i didn't know anything about AGS, by the time i realised how to use AGS properly, there were too many stuffups to fix.

For the rest of you, seeing as you think the graphics are so shit, don't play it. It isn't like i am selling it or anything.

Jeez, just when i thought the AGS community had accepted me...

[InCreator]

You have started a new project every month since March.

But I was thinking, if Flukeblake is the age he says, and has the lack of experience he says, this is the standard of art I would expect, especially when using computer programs.

If dear mr. Flukeblake had spent this time on learning to draw and visit CL frequently - instead of starting pointless projects and attacking moderators, I'm sure he could achieve at least acceptable standards in background and character art.

Flukeblake seems to be quite creative person, and my best guess is that new ideas rushing into his mind is what makes him also rush his projects and keep valuable seconds thus making this insane crap instead of computer game graphics.

Well, don't. You CAN write, so if you have good story in your mind, just take a pencil and paper. Or notepad. And write it down, so you won't forget it. No need to slap together some rubbish in few seconds just not to forget it.

If I post a thread about a new game, I want to amaze others and impress them with ideas and art. So I put much effort into it.
What are your goals, Flukeblake?
How did community accept others?
What- and how did they do/act?

For the rest of you, seeing as you think the graphics are so shit, don't play it. It isn't like i am selling it or anything.

Rest of... who? You found an admirer? Okay, then you just complete one of your projects and prove that graphics is just a minor issue and game itself is good... good luck!

My sympathies to Andail and Darth Mandarb.

[PsychicHeart]

why do i even bother....?

[Ponch]

So much hate for Flukeblake. Hell, when I was his age (and that's assuming he's really 12 years old and not some sort of evil genius playing us all like a well-tuned stratovarius), I was making absolutely awful games on a C64. The sprites were blocky, the scripting was awful, but you better believe that I poured blood, sweat and tears (and BASIC) into those terrible, terrible games.

Everyone has to start somewhere and for AGS' youngest (and certainly most prolific) aspiring game creator, that somewhere is here.

Will Flukeblake finish The Apartment? Experience tells me "No". In fact, this thread is probably the last any of us shall ever hear of it.

But my heart tells me "Yes".

Flukeblake could be the next Ron Gilbert and we're seeing him in his nascent form. Think of it! In a few years, we could all still be posting here, remembering the days before Flukeblake grew up and left us, only to single handedly revive the adventure game format and become so fabulously wealthy that he forced Bill Gates to sell him the rights to the XBox just so he could stop making them and force everyone to return to their old keyboards and mouses (mice?). He may well go on to become both unreasonably rich and a god among game designers... and we'll all be able to say we "knew him when".

Or he could stop posting and disappear into the ether forever, leaving us all to wonder "what ever happened to Flukeblake? He sure was entertaining."

Either way, really. But I'm rooting for him to finish a game.

- Ponch

[Krazy]

Flukeblake, you're obviously an aspiring game creator (as I was at your age and younger). But the thing is, you just need to learn how to improve your graphics and stuff, take the critiques with good grace, try and embrace them. Use the suggestions they've given, learn some some about graphics (they don't have to be great but seriously they can look a lot better with some extra effort) I drew this game character when I was 12:

I may of been crap at drawing back then too, but at least I tried to put a little effort into it. Just try using refrence from other pictures, and spend atleast 30 mins drawing your backgrounds and characters, and see how it turns out. More than likely they'll turn out 10 times better. Don't get discouraged though, this is just some friendly advice, don't stop making games 

[DCillusion]

Don't go away Flukeblake!

The best response was to write the idea on paper first.  Then, if it still sounds good, script the entire game.  After that, finish the entire game before announcing it at all.

.....If you finish 1 single game, (even a short game),  I'll download it, & so will a lot of other people.  People will also defend you once complete a game, & you'll be ahead of a lot of people on the forums.

[marlamoe]

Don't go away Flukeblake!

The best response was to write the idea on paper first.Ã,  Then, if it still sounds good, script the entire game.Ã,  After that, finish the entire game before announcing it at all.

.....If you finish 1 single game, (even a short game),Ã,  I'll download it, & so will a lot of other people.Ã,  People will also defend you once complete a game, & you'll be ahead of a lot of people on the forums.

I agree

[PsychicHeart]

Well, i suppose i will just have to redo the graphics, spend more time on them. If these forums have taught me anything, it's that if you fail, pick yourself up and try again. I suppose the noble thing to do is to ask moderators to lock this thread, so that i may work on the graphics.

i take this as my final initiation. i am not sure if i have been welcomed into this community or not yet, but, hopefully, by the time i complete the apartment, i will be.

-Blake

[CoffeeBob]

My excuses for sounding a bit harsh, but you've got to understand that I mean well. I too started AGS'ing when I was 12. My games weren't great either, but it learned me that it's better to write all the ideas down before beggining to develop a game out of them. When you've got to a state in the writing where you feel that there's enough ideas to make it a game, start scripting/spriting or whatever you prefer to begin with and post your work at the critics lounge. That way you'll improve your art and/or writing skills alot.

[SSH]

I am rubbish at drawing too, but if you take some time to follow some of the tutorials in the Critics Loung, you can improve a lot. Or find a logical explanation for the way your graphics are... make "Scribble world" where everyone's a scribble, or do what I did with Pixel Hunt and make the characters all squares with no features, except a mouth when they talk. In fact, since I made the source code of PH available, why not download it and make a sequel.

[InCreator]

So, Flukeblake

1. Draw a background, sprite, etc
2. Polish it until you feel that you've reached your limits
3. Post it into Critics Lounge
4. Hear all critiques and comments, don't take offense, because they usually are a bit harsh from starters point of view... once you improve, the C&C gets softer and there's less of advice like "redo all" and more "just fix these two pixels"
5. Improve, improve and improve. It may need you reading tutorials, try very hard and maybe skip some suggestions while taking others into account and do even better than suggested*
6. Occassionally, people will be statisfied enough with the graphics and you'll get more "I like it!" replies than "Erm, change this, this, this and this"
7. Now, practice until you can keep the quality people liked throughout the whole game
8. And you're there.

* - You can't dance to EVERYONE'S music. If you start to adjust your gfx to every single reply, you'll never get anywhere. Deciding what has to be improved is a part of art by itself. But this is also quite unlikely for a starter

I personally find CL the most respectable, useful and helpful part of AGSforums and rarely someone leaves it without getting useful aid... rarely? Maybe never.

[Darth Mandarb]

And so it ends ...