Alien Rage

I don't know where did my mom get this idea from... actually I think she got it from her mom who got it from hers... anyway, she used to 'encourage' us to finish off your plates by threatening us that the remaining food would be dangled off our eyelashes in Limbo!

AND IT WORKED.

It worked really good that as I was growing and watching the Alien movies, the alien sometimes used to kill people and leave parts of their bodies... so you know...

Eye Of The Monster - Epoch Teaser #5

The Eye of The Monster

Who is Moon?

Name: Moon
Age: 38 Earth Solar Years
Class: 2A
Occupation: Engineer
A.S: Marsi-3
Location: Jupiter Orbit

Moon is an engineer. Working along with Kat, they make sure the engines temperatures are within nominal ranges.

Despite being diagnosed with Down Syndrome, Moon showed higher IQ levels than his colleagues and aced his Engineering School back on Earth. 

Lock Picking

Let's say you are now facing a locked door, a safe or a box... There are several ways to get them opened: If you know that a character has the key and you've been 'nice' to them, there's a chance you can get the key (of course it's not that easy to get them happy to give you the key.. at least not only by talking nice to them...) OR, you can pick the lock. And I'm not doing Hero's Quest lock picking thing, it's real lock picking methods. 

I've made a room specifically for that purpose, of course each lock in the game has a different randomly generated combination so every time the game is restarted the locks are different... Locks usually need a very sensitive ear to hear the soft clicks of the mechanisms inside them, so for those players with hearing problems I am using the shake screen function instead.

Deli

Back to Earth, Swenett, the crew of Marsi-3 are kicking back and relaxing after staying for months in space. Carter is busy with his own adventures and investigations.

Carter is chatting with the old deli owner, while Simon is focusing on the meat delights next to him.

Kitten Purrs

Simon Pegg is my real kitten. He is the most playful cat I've ever seen in my life. Notice the dialog with Aziz changing depending on Carter's position whether he is standing next to him or laying on bed. Also Topics responses change depending on characters' moods, in the video you'll notice two different answers when Aziz is asked about his personal life before and after being insulted. The player has the complete freedom to manipulate other characters moods in order to find different approaches to solve puzzles. This doesn't mean you have to be rude or nice to other characters, there is a solution either way.

Camera Position

I always felt this room lacked something. I thought about adding more details but it kept asking for more. So I decided to pull a little trick since the camera is positioned so far near a corner: push the camera a little further as if it was outside a large window. Not only it worked great, but I also have an extra room for the player when floating outside Marsi-3. Notice the changes of the game's interface as well here.

Aswan Resort

The week's #screenshotsaturday

The background is still under construction and missing some elements like a boat, the antique store sign and more plants. It is though fully animated: light reflection on water, wind moving plants and awning, little kid swimming.

More details added to the basement

Titan's Gold Plated Pyramid

Here's my contribution for #screenshotsaturday

Who Is Kat

Name: Kat
Age: 26 Earth Solar Years
Class: 2C
Occupation: Assistant Engineer
A.S: Marsi-3
Location: Jupiter Orbit

Kat is the engines coolers assistant engineer. Working along with Moon, they make sure the engines temperatures are within nominal ranges.

Kat misses her son back on Earth dearly. Sometimes childhood behaviors from her coworkers amuse her to a point she gains trust.

Who Is Carter

Name: Carter
Age: 34 Earth Solar Years
Class: 4A
Occupation: Botanist
A.S: Marsi-3
Location: Jupiter Orbit

Carter is devoted to his work. He's been passionate about plants since his childhood years. He graduated from Thinis University. Currently, he is responsible of the 4th oxygen garden at Marsi-3 with his lovely girlfriend of two years Alex.

Milliseconds Thoughts

Why do we tend to think about the weirdest things in life while waiting for the elevator? Carter is standing on a panel right over Ty's bunk thinking about getting out of Titan and heading to Earth. Many issues and relations got messy at this point. Let's just hope everyone calm down a little. Life is much larger than our little problems here. Let's not fo... oh here's the lift.

New Interface

I decided to change the game's interface. All cursors are colored and fully animated when moving on screen. Panel, buttons and display text boxes are all transparent blue with yellow text. Developed a screenshot of the current location when a game is saved too.

Curse of Nefertiti

Carter & Alex doodles

Here are two doodles of Carter and Alex. I'm drawing closeups of their faces with different angels to use for cut scenes and animations.

Carter's face is constantly focused since he is trying to understand sciences beyond his occupational knowledge. I have chosen a very light color for his eyes in order to show depth as if he needs to fill a void in his mind.

Alex's features are very warm and always showing what's in hear heart. She doesn't hide much. Always smiling when Carter is around. Her eyes are always focusing on his face while they talk.

Carter's Helmet Sketch

Investigating the Unknown

New haircut; new avatar

Titan's Oxygen Oasis

From sketch to game

What am I doing here?

Left Earth to another world made of fuel. This entire moon is used as a natural gas mine, except it is too cold the gas is in its liquid form. I am not an engineer, I am a botanist for God's sake! Why am I even standing on Titan's surface?

Silo base on Titan

Mouse Skills in Point and Click Adventure Games

Carter is supposed to sneak into the floating-bike garage. One of the ways he can do that is to hop through the red pipe hanging below the construction. The player here is expected to develop a special sense of timing between mouse clicks (or touch for mobile devices). If the player did not click for a while (a couple of seconds) then Carter's arms would get tired and eventually fall. By clicking on either arrow Carter will hop one 'step' to the corresponding direction. The time between clicks is also vital, clicking too fast would result in a fall as well due to an imbalance issue.

This brings an issue to my mind, about control skills in Point and Click games. I used this feature in anastronaut 1: The Moon Hopper, precisely when the player breaks a window in a spaceship causing an atmosphere leak. He was supposed to be grabbing hard into a dent by keeping the mouse button down at a specific region in the room for a few seconds.