A brief talk

A couple of days ago I had my first talk with the mentor that was assigned to me: Jeff Cook. Jeff knows his point-and-click games inside out. Luckily for me that means I'll be getting spot-on help and advice. So it's a good thing that I requested him specifically. We started off by me showing the mediaproduction demo that I had made. He let me know that he thought the demo succeeded in creating a film noir world. He found the visuals and sound creating a nice immersive feeling.

I told him that my love for point-and-click games mainly comes from the LucasArts games (I'll blog about this subject later) and that I noticed that the main characters in these games are always visible on the screen and the player can click wherever they want the character to go. My demo doesn't have this. Instead the player is looking through the eyes of the main character. I did this mainly for technical reasons because it would require advanced programming skills which I don't really have. Would this be okay, I asked him. He told me that it was fine and that I could play around with this. When interacting with another person, make him look at the camera, thus breaking the fourth wall. This way you let the player know he/she embodies the main character at that time. This is a great idea that I'll be sure to play around with.

Exposé noir

Before this minor started, all of the students received an e-mail saying they would have to prepare a "mediaproduction" and send it in before Friday the 24th. This was something like a pitch to see if your project really fit in with the minor. I finished making a demo and sent it in. My demo was actually something that I made long before. It was during my first year in a course called 'Immersive Space' that I came up with this idea of being a detective in a futuristic Hong Kong. I even finished making it into a point-and-click game. The only downside was that I had a mere 8 weeks to do this. That's including the time to figure out the entire concept and story. The game -which was called 'Murder at Hotel Noir'- turned out incredibly short, not exactly fulfilling my desire to make a full-fledged quality point-and-click game. That's where this minor comes in. This is an ideal opportunity for me to make that game and make it good. So for the mediaproduction we had to prepare, I took out my old mini point-and-click game and changed some things. The demo was done in a few days.

I'd like to post this demo on the blog but I simply couldn't find a way to upload SWF files. Maybe I'm overlooking something but I just couldn't get it to work. To try and show you my demo, I made several screenshots of the game to give you an idea of how it looks and works.

So the demo starts out with an intro. The classic swirling-newspaper-towards-the-screen trick. And it says MURDER! on the front page. That's serious business..

And we're off…

My name is Barış Solmaz and for the upcoming 18 weeks I will be developing a point-and-click adventure game. This is a 'Digital Media Production' assignment I'm doing for a minor at my school (HAN: University of Applied Sciences). The main character in this game is a private eye that's about to get the case of a lifetime. What excites me the most is that this story takes place in future Hong Kong with a distinct film noir style. This flashy, overcrowded, bustling, smokey city will be the backdrop for a story full of twists and turns.

This blog will serve as the place where I'll put up work in progress. I'm guessing stuff like sketches, artwork, animations, music, you name it. All the things that will eventually come together and form the entire game at the end of those 18 weeks. I will also post my research, thoughts and ideas about my game -or the point-and-click subject in general- on this blog on a regular basis. Maybe even stuff that inspire me, like certain games or movies. So if you're interested, be sure to follow this blog.

I'm really looking forward to this, so let's crack this case wide open!