Plan for Jared Coliadis

Official announcement of both the first title from Nevo Games: Issue #37, and the T2D Adventure Core.

After several months of pre-production planning/writing, Nevo Games (name pending) is proud to announce that production has begun on our T2D point-and-click adventure game Issue #37. We are currently estimating approximately a year of development time, but our progress has been promising so far.

If anyone is fimiliar with the classic Lucasarts point-and-click adventure games, (Monkey Island, Day of the Tentacle, Full Throttle, The Dig, etc.) you'll be excited to hear that these gaming classics are our greatest inspiration. While SCUMM and similar engines are available as freeware, these platforms are very dated. We wanted non-pixelated graphics and a lot of flexibility, so I have taken it upon myself to create the T2D Adventure Core (name also pending) to power Issue #37.

So, what's the T2D Adventure Core consist of?
This is my first draft of what the Adventure Core will contain. It lists what streamlined modifications I think will be needed to simplify the development cycle of Issue #37, or any other point-and-click adventure games. Note that this is a first draft, and features may be added/cut as development/testing is perfomed.

Yes, I do plan on keeping this as abstract as I can so other games can use these tools easily. If there is enough of a demand for it, (or if GG might be interested in supporting it, ;) ) I might release it as a pack when it is stable enough to use.

First Draft Specifications

Navigation

Pathfinding
Scene Transitions
Item Selection
Inventory

Dialog

Transitioning multiple statements
Response Options
Altering Options depending on events/response given
Removing Responses that have become irrelevant
Keeping conversation in context!
Sub-dialogs within a dialog (e.g. multiple responses to a question that can be answered multiple times)
Dialog as a response to an action
UI to create conversations


Scripted Sequences

Timing
Limiting player control, but allowing him to skip dialogue
Possible UI to create scripted sequences
Keeping code simple for end programmer


Game State

Objective Triggers
Conversation Triggers
Item Triggers
Keeping state data clean and in context


Game World

Animated Objects (mostly players and anything that moves)
Inventory Item (Anything that can be stored in the inventory)
World Item (Switches and other puzzle-ish interactive items)
Map
Locational Data (Level Data and World Data)
Streamlined Saving/Loading
Spawning/Destroying objects

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So the Adventure Core sounds neat, but what's this game you were talking about?

Very Brief Issue #37 Synopsis

A group of comic-book and science obsessed teenagers are dedicated to find the rarest issue of their favorite comic book series. They must earn the rest of the money they need through jobs, favors, and other mischevious deeds. Conflict brews when they face a rival comic-book gang in pursuit of the same coveted item. All of this, and much, much more just to somehow locate this final comic of their favorite scientist super-hero.

Our artist is creating some wonderful work for us so far, and we may pick up a second artist to handle animations and other art.

Here is some early concept art of a few characters...




...and here are some of her amazing environments she's been creating...
The meeting room...


A little sister's room...


And finally, we have our first animated character. This is the main character's grandma.



Like I said, we're all very excited about this project. Our current goal to shoot for is next year's IGF student showcase, but if we are continually making good progress, we might even enter in the "official" IGF competition instead.

I'd love to hear what the community has to say about our project, so feel free to ask comments/questions/etc.

Thanks for reading,
/Jared