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..

After that we see slow fading shots of the rainy city and a couple of newspaper articles where it says 'Digital Media Production' and 'Made by'. All of this accompanied by smooth jazz.

The camera slowly zooms in to a window that has the words 'Private Eye' on it. The jazz fades away.. This intro should make clear that my game will have cutscenes in it. And moody they will be.

The next shot we're behind the window we just saw. The camera slowly zooms out to reveal an office. We're greeted by a dialogue box at the bottom of the screen. At the same time a phone rings. The person (me) tells you to go and pick up the phone first and says that this is done by clicking on the phone with the mouse, acting somewhat as a tutorial.

Suddenly you're talking to a guy that's at the other end of the telephone. He's asking if you're interested for a job. The little bouncing 'play' indicator in the bottom-right corner gives the feeling the player should press on it to advance. 

The dialogue box turns into an answer box. The text now has a different color and shows two different answers. When you hover the mouse over one, it get's underlined. Clicking on it would no doubt answer the question.

After a brief pause the dialogue box appears with a specific reaction to your answer. You now understand that communication is a key part of this game.

After I return in the shape of a purple-coloured dialogue box, I give you all sorts of information about why and how I want to do this project (because this still is a pitch). I tell you that I will not bother you anymore and will leave you alone in your office. The dialogue box disappears and now you have to do things you just learned a few moments ago. You did learn, right?

You go ahead by clicking on the radio, it plays an old-fashioned tune. You click on the door, it's locked. You decide to click on the paper file on the table. It opens up..

More exciting information about my project! You click close. By now, would you have had enough of the demo? Thinking you saw every bit of information in the demo that was to be seen, and close the demo off? Or would you continue to poke around and look for more? Because if you were to click on the file cabinet on the left. You would see it opening and suddenly hear keys dropping into your inventory on the bottom-right. So that's what those squares are, your pockets!

Having found the keys you click on the door once more. The door opens and you step outside into the wet and smokey world of Hong Kong..

 

'Thank you for playing this DMP mediaproduction. Start over?'