More new
character artwork
Posted:
September 2, 2007
By:
Josh Roberts
First,
an apology for the less-than-hoped-for
frequency of recent updates. I'm
currently having some health issues that
are taking their toll on me mentally and
physically, so work on Rise of the
Hidden Sun has slowed a bit as a
result. But it hasn't stopped! Nope, not
at all.
In fact, here is the final colored
version of a character many of you have
seen before in sketch form. This jolly
old guy is a prospector that Rattlesnake
Jake meets near the entrance of the
haunted gold mine in episode one. He's a
fountain of knowledge about local
legends and Indian ghost tales.
This particular frame is the start of a
song and dance routine (yes, really!)
that Jake must endure before he can suss
out some valuable information from the
prospector.
New
character artwork
Posted:
August 1, 2007
By:
Josh Roberts
Introducing my new favorite
character.... Burro!
And
here he is in action. (This is a
1.66 MB Quicktime file. Right click to
save to your desktop.) The cowboy in
this little test movie isn't Jake, by
the way. It's another character named
Hawkeye, who has a very small
role in episode one.
New
theme music
Posted:
July 1, 2007
By:
Josh Roberts
Here's the
new Rattlesnake Jake theme music, which
will accompany the intro/options screen
when the game loads. I was looking for
"Indiana Jones, but funnier and more
cowboyish." I think the composer,
Jesse Hopkins, really nailed it!
Download the music
here (5 MB download).
My,
what nice screenshots you have!
Posted:
June 11, 2007
By:
Josh Roberts
One of the
major tasks I've set for myself prior to
the release of episode one is
establishing artistic consistency from
screen to screen and within environments
as a whole.
Thus, a lot of game areas that were
initially conceived and painted as
standalone 800x600 game screens are
being converted into more organic
scrolling environments that give the
whole game a more modern, unified feel.
Another issue I'm addressing is
consistency of painting styles between
the different artists who contributed to
episode one during our first production
cycle. For example, in some screens the
underlying pencil work is really
obvious, i.e. the colorist allowed all
of the pencil shading to show through.
In other screens, the colorist totally
painted over the pencil strokes and the
end result is much different, to the
point where you can barely tell it was
originally conceived as a
paper-and-pencil drawing that was later
scanned and painted.
This is what the old version of a scene
(two unique screens at 800x600 each)
looked like:
And here's that scene reimagined to take
advantage of the AGS engine's scrolling
functions and painted over to establish
consistent color treatments throughout:
This also gives me the chance to make
some tiny little corrections and
additions that I've wanted to do for a
while. For example, when I designed this
crossroads screen I hadn't yet come up
with a design for the town off in the
distance. Thus, the town appears very
generic in the original screen, whereas
in the new screen it actually matches
the look and layout of the town, which
you'll get to explore in episode two.
Another little detail: The cactus that
now appears at the bottom of the
crossroads scene is based on an actual
cactus I came across while hiking in the
Grand Canyon a few years ago.
Although making all of these changes may
push back the release of episode one a
little, I think you'll agree it will be
well worth the wait.
Prettiest. Cowgirl. Ever.
Posted:
June 4, 2007
By:
Josh Roberts
This
just in! Jim Peebles of Peebles
Productions is producing a whole new
line of animated character sprites for Rise of the
Hidden Sun. Here's a sample
of Mary Jane Clayton, puuurtiest cowgirl
bandit in the Wild West (not to mention
a rival-slash-love-interest of a certain
cowboy-turned-treasure-hunter)!
Back
in the saddle again!
Posted: May 1, 2007
By:
Josh Roberts
As the saying goes,
reports of our death have
been greatly exaggerated. After nearly
two years on hiatus, Rise of the
Hidden Sun is back!
Why
the long break? Here's what I told the
team when I made the decision to halt
production in November 2005:
The reasons for
this are a billion-fold, but the
biggest factor is actually quite
simple: I just don't have the time
to oversee production of
the game with the passion and energy
I've put into it for the past two
years.
My life has changed since I launched
Chapter 11 Studios. For one thing,
I've finally established myself as
an
adventure travel columnist for a
major U.S. publication. Writing
about travel takes research,
passion, energy, and—obviously—a lot
of time away from home.
My wife and I will also soon be
buying a house and trying to start a
family in the year ahead. Couple
that with various other demands on
my time, and it has literally become
impossible for me to put the energy
into this game that I feel is
required to do the job right.
I know each of you committed to this
game because of your belief that it
would someday be finished. I stand
by that: It will get done. Maybe not
as soon as we'd hoped, but
eventually. I'm committed to that.
My passion for this story, these
characters, and this game world is
still strong. It's the time to work
on it that's coming up short these
days.
Flash forward to today. Do I have
more free time? Uh, not so much. I'm
still a travel writer. I now own a
house. My wife and I have a newborn
baby to take care of. And yet... I
still can't get
Rise of the Hidden Sun out of
my system. I just love
this game too much to let it go. Who
needs to sleep, anyway?
So there you have it. Over the past few
months I've rounded up some of the old gang,
recruited some new blood, and dusted off
the original design documents that made
this whole thing possible to begin with.
And now, after two long years, 'Rattlesnake' Jake
Dawson rides again! |
