Hello and welcome to my new game thread. Ok, so before anyone says it I haven’t abandoned Last Man’s Stand, I just need a break from it – I’ve been working on it for 2 years now and I’m kind of fed up with it. So here’s my new game. Sabriel is based on the novel by Garth Nix (type it into Google or something) and follows the books plot pretty closely. I’m hoping to make the game fun for those who haven’t read the book as well as for those who have, so I’ve changed small parts of the book around so that the plot can be understood by anyone. Anyone who’s read the books are free to make comments on how I could go about parts of the plot better, and those who haven’t can comment on anything else :). I started making parts of a game of Sabriel back at the start of 2009, and then came back to them a few days ago and used what I could to start building the game I have now. So, here goes. Thanks for reading.



20/8/10 – Topic Posted.



Back Story

Sabriel’s time at Wyverly Girl’s College, the only home she has known her entire life, is ending. With an array of good and passable grades in her exams, she is looking forward to discussing her future with her Father, Abhorsen, a man who is regarded as strange in the peaceful and non-magic land of Ancelstierre. Ever since her Father arrived at Wyverly gates nineteen years previous with a newly born child and money for her years of education to come, Sabriel has seen little of him. His ‘work’ means he must constantly travel Sabriel’s home land of the Old Kingdom, and that, he had told her, was no place for her. For the Old Kingdom is full of Free Magic and Dead beings who won’t stay dead. But this night her father has promised he will visit, and Abhorsen’s promises are always kept. Unless there is something stopping him. Something more powerful than him. Something to be feared.

When Abhorsen fails to turn up at Wyverly College, and instead a Dead being arrives in his place, Sabriel is forced to abandon her final days at College and journey across the Wall that divides the two lands in search of her Father. Taking up his mantel and his job, Sabriel pulls together her knowledge of the Charter and the Dead and takes her first steps back into her homeland. What’s waiting for her there is beyond anything she has ever dreaded.



Plot

You play as Sabriel and take control of the powers of a necromancer to govern and control Death. Using Charter Magic and the Bells of the Abhorsen, you must confront the Dead beings set against you and save the living. Throughout the game you will travel the Old Kingdom to incredible places such as Holeharrow and Belisare, which I am trying to create with as much accuracy to the text as possible. Along the way you will be accompanied by allies each with thier own backstorys which are crucial to the plot. You will also collect the lost pages of The Book of the Dead, found scattered about the world, which fill in important details about the environment, characters, items and enemies around you. All of this will hopefully give a true essence of the book they're based on - but also allow the player to enjoy the game just as a game, and doesn't force them to concentrate too much on the story.







• Fight your enemies in a Custom battle system
• Hand drawn character and monster graphics
• Slip in and out of Death to change events
• Cinematic cutscenes
• Take up the Bells of the Abhorsen to govern who lives and who dies
• Play through all the areas of the book, and more.

Glossary of Terms

No offense, I mean you've obviously put a lot of effort into this project, but why does sabriel look like a man with boobs?

Ha ha. You better get a romantic female interest soon then, Zac wants in. I mean, I agree though, it's just his art. But you should look further into her eyes, you soon realize to regret it.

I can't wait for a demo. Interesting project.

lol, I don't think she looks like a man? The original drawing looks less so imo, i suppose through drawing and redrawing she kind of lost a bit of her shape :/. I dunno, but I don't plan to redraw her any time soon. Thanks for the comments. I hope I'll have a demo out fairly soon as there's a fair bit I could put into one, but as anyone who was waiting for my other games can vouch, I'm not the best at sticking to deadlines :P. I'll also try and get some more info into this topic, the story summary is pretty poor atm, cause I ended up rushing this topic after imageshack started messing with my images. But yeah. Any more comments please?

I really like the screenshots! They are all so beautiful. My favorite has to be the one just outside the college. :D

I agree on what the others said on Sabriel's graphic, though. The face used on the dialogue looks ok and female enough, but the battler is very, very manly to be honest. When I first saw it, I thought she was a boy. Honestly. :/

Other than that, everything else looks very wonderful. I am looking forward to it!

Thanks :) I like the college one too. Got a bit more of the gameplay inside the college done today, and also following a few more comments about Sabriel's graphic looking like a guy, I've edited it. Also had some comments on the position of the arm, so I've edited that too.



Better?

Ooh, a lot better now! Though I may suggest to slightly edit the eyes, to look a bit more feminine. Like add eyelashes bit or something, so that she doesn't look like a tomboy.

Ah, good. I will try with the eye thing, but I'm not sure how much detail I can get in on that small scale. The battler is then 70% of that size too :/. I'm now about 20 pages into game-izing (is that a word?) the story. About 60% of what I've done so far is cutscenes, and I'm a bit worried that there isn't enough gameplay itself so far. When I release the demo I'll have to have everyones opinions.

Any other comments everyone? 111 views and 2 people have commented? :/

I'm one of those 111 viewers. I watched this thread yesterday and i'm positive about it. Custom art and scripts are a real hassle, but you are pulling it off. The main characters graphic has improved a lot now, so good work on that. I really like the mapping. It's very similar to my own style by the way ;)

The story looks good too, maybe just a little cliche. But i can't really comment on it as long as i haven't play a demo. Looks like a good project that i'll keep my eye on.

Thanks. I remember your mapping from the Mapping contest we were both in ages ago. The book itself doesn't have a cliche storyline, the plot is quite complex, it's just my summing up of the story that makes it sound cliche :). I'll rewrite it. I'll have a demo out soon-ish, just as long as I get some gameplay done. I actually hope to get some of the story released straight away this time unlike my other games, so I may split the storyline up into chapters (or though how I'm going to split a book's chapters into chapters I don't know :S) and release them one by one. We'll see.

---UPDATE---

Finished the titlescreen. I wanted to create a parralel between the cover of the book and the titlescreen of the game. The copy of Sabriel I have is, I believe, the british version? I dunno. But the cover I have is this:



So, with that in mind, the titlescreen:



The Press Start Button fades in and out, then is replaced with a scrollable command menu for new game, continue, end, etc when enter is pressed. I'm not trying to make it look exactly the same, just similar. Also, a support bar for anyone that wants one:



Remove the *s
[url*=http://www.hbgames.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=78&t=72170][img*]http://bb.hbgames.org/upload/Sabriel%20Support%20Bar.png[/img*][/url*]

Comments?

The title screen has the same atmosphere as the book cover so that's good. It's impressive you do the art, the scripting and the mapping/eventing all by yourself by the way.
(ps; I remember that mapping contest. I improved a lot since then. After the contest i knew i was a decent mapper, but i wanted to be a great mapper ^^)

Bookmarked this project,fox5 nice maps ;)

Interest. Now, the battler's positions are weak, like a robot.

You should check this out: http://www.dragoart.com/anatomy-c298-1.htm

It will help you improving those draws.

And nice screenshots. =)
Bugs! I mean, Hugs!

Ah, sorry, messed up the code for the support bar, use the new one I posted above.

@gRaViJa: Ah, good thats what I was aiming for :) Yeah, I tend to try and do everything myself on projects, except for music, and get help with the scripting. Thats one reason it takes so long. But at least that way I have nobody but myself to blame if I don't like something ;)
@kqurmiz: Cheers.
@fbu: Thanks for that, I'll look into it. I don't really feel like doing those battlers again at the moment, I'll have to see later on in the project, but when I come to draw the other characters, I'll definatly use that. Glad you like the screens :)

Much better. I suppose, no one should tell her off for being a fat pig in your game.

Oh about the battler, try adding some boldness to the upper eyelid, to make it look liek eyelashes, then make the lips a bit more faint instead of dark outlines (Y) Besides that eveyrthing has a nice matching feel to it.

@benos: Umm thanks? lol
@WeaponOD: Yeah, good point the lips do stick out way too much. I think I left them there from the original sketch and didn't go over them now I come to think of it :/

Right, nearly completed Wyverly College. I'm trying to add in some side quests that can be completed throughout the game to add more gameplay. Most of them are simple things, but not easy to complete. The player has a quest journal that outlines the main points they must be completing to advance in the storyline, but also has room for the side quests that reward experience but aren't nessicary. So that way I keep the aspect of the plot from the book for people who just want to see that, but also have enough gameplay that it stands as a game on its own.

So I just stumbled across this, and I'm excited you're starting it again since I love the book.
One thing I have to pick on though, and it's something most people get wrong - that is not the way a bell should be rung.
The handle would be gripped so that the bell is upright.
Check out this image for reference: http://www.chapelumc.com/web_images/handbell.gif

Other than that things are looking pretty good. I'm sad about the lack of silver keys on her surcoat, but that is understandable (especially since she wouldn't have that from the beginning).