coughlinjon Posted November 14, 2016 3/15/2017 - The Dab Update is pushed! Major improvements over v1 of Ep.2 Episode 2 is available now!!! https://coughlinjon.itch.io/the-eyes-of-cheatin-hitman Original Post Below I'm trying to get better with Audacity, so I've also included an audio version of my pitch at the bottom of this page; don't feel any pressure to listen. Hello, Thumbs Community! I'm Jon, and I'm making a new comedy, The Eyes of Cheatin Hitman! In past Wizard Jams I've made The Eyes of Luigi and Eyes of the G-Man, and I've enjoyed my "Eyes of Wizard Jam" series so much that I've mashed titles together this time to appreciate some of my favorite games. The Game The Eyes of Cheatin Hitman will be a 1st person narrative with gameplay and art styled after the Blendo Games titles Gravity Bone and Thirty Flights of Loving, as well as the Variable State title Virginia. Agent 47 will flash through a series of busted covers, suspicious activity, and failed execution, and the player will have a short window to decide between fight and flight. I'm hoping to smoothly cut between encounters like Blendo Games and Variable State, I'm hoping to capture the zaniness of trashy Hitman runs, and I'm hoping to retain a player's attention with pace, simplicity, and comedy. The Plan I've never made a game with fully 3D models before, so I'm shooting for the lowest fidelity models I can think of: the blocky and harshly geometric worlds of Blendo Games. I have some basic 1st person exploration tools built from past games, like The Eyes of Luigi, but I need to create the framework for smart event triggering/scripting and fast/smooth transitions between game states like in the Blendo Games and Variable State titles. I know all of this will be a lot of work - multiple rooms, multiple NPCs, potential 3D animations, voices, so I want to focus on simplicity. The Team I was lucky in both my previous Wizard Jam games to find amazing collaborators - I practically fell into Steven and Travis last time, and they made the two most expressive components of The Eyes of Luigi: the goofy art and the fantastic Luigi voice controller; I'll need help to pull off The Eyes of Cheatin Hitman, too. Art I'm totally new to Blender. We need some blocky NPCs with low-fi but expressive faces, rooms decorated like Hitman settings (though minimalist, like a light fixture, a plant, a table, a prop) Level Design & Scripting Do you want to lay out props and NPCs in a Hitman level (and by level I mean a small room)? Do you want to lay down triggers to recognize when the player has chosen their fight or flight response? We'll provide the tools and the room concepts, you make it your own. Programming Help me build the level triggers, the Hitman and NPC voice controllers, any prop or level interactivity, and the transitions between levels. Intro Cinematic I have a dream to include a short, simplified version of the modern Hitman mission briefings, but rendered with slow panning and zooming shots in our game engine throughout our levels. I have some old tools from Eyes of the G-Man that can help make it a reality, but directing a cinematic like that takes a lot of time and tweaking, so I'd prefer to delegate it to someone with an eye for film direction (which I definitely do not have). Sound/Music/Soundscape Do you like creating music or sounds? Do you like searching through free sound libraries for the perfect sound effect (I do!)? Do you like testing levels and placing/tuning sounds, timings, and volumes? I enjoy all these things, but they take time, and we'll be short on time, so I'd love to offload these tasks. Between the Luigi voice, prop sounds, ghost sounds, and Luigi singing Hotline Bling, sounds were probably the most powerful comedy tool we used in The Eyes of Luigi. I expect they'll be nearly as valuable to The Eyes of Cheatin Hitman. The Inspiration Here are the resources I'll be using as reference for tone, art, and gameplay. Hitman seriousness Blendo Games art and gameplay Virginia gameplay Contact Info: !Right here in this forum thread! coughlin.jon@gmail.com Idle Thumbs Slack: coughlinjon Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
coughlinjon Posted November 18, 2016 Lol, this took me almost two days of fumbling through tutorials to figure out. I give you - Lady in dress with green flower. She is faceless at the moment. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
coughlinjon Posted November 19, 2016 My wife and I are visiting my two sisters this weekend and we're about to record a ridiculous amount of VO for this game Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
coughlinjon Posted November 19, 2016 13 hours ago, clicktozoom said: My wife and I are visiting my two sisters this weekend and we're about to record a ridiculous amount of VO for this game lol, so this kind of worked and kind of didn't last night. My poor technical setup aside, my sisters and wife are actually really good voice actors! I'm going to try this again before we start drinking today Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
badatstuff Posted November 20, 2016 If you still need it, I would love to try and fit in making some music and sound for this. Not all of it probably, but if you have a list of sounds and voices and musical styles/tones you'd like, I and perhaps some others could try to whittle down that list as much as possible to make your task more manageable? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
coughlinjon Posted November 20, 2016 2 hours ago, badatstuff said: If you still need it, I would love to try and fit in making some music and sound for this. Not all of it probably, but if you have a list of sounds and voices and musical styles/tones you'd like, I and perhaps some others could try to whittle down that list as much as possible to make your task more manageable? I have a friend who's taking a crack at music with me this week, but sounds and some voices would be a huge help! Are you on slack? I can add you to our team channel Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
coughlinjon Posted November 21, 2016 A character is alive Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
coughlinjon Posted November 21, 2016 I've started this project with a lot of documenting/planning, a character model/texture draft, and now a draft of the mission briefing (below). I'm hoping that the planning up front will help set the tone for teammates to be able to work on their assets at their leisure Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Wyatt_AK Posted November 23, 2016 I really enjoyed The Eyes of Luigi, and it looks like this is coming along just as well as that did. Can't wait to play. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
CEJ Posted November 23, 2016 This devlog is super classy with the audio logs and all. It's great. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
coughlinjon Posted November 23, 2016 14 hours ago, Wyatt_AK said: I really enjoyed The Eyes of Luigi, and it looks like this is coming along just as well as that did. Can't wait to play. lol, thanks 6 hours ago, CEJ said: This devlog is super classy with the audio logs and all. It's great. haha, the audio logs are coming along organically since audio will be a huge part of the game. I got my family all excited to record clown voices this weekend over Thanksgiving. I'm really pumped to post some of it in progress. I've included the balloon chandelier that Nate made for our ballroom - it seemed like the kind of light fixture you'd find at the Intl. Clown Hall of Fame Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
z_bill Posted November 23, 2016 Oh cool. I'm glad you are continuing with the "Eyes of..." naming continuity. I hadn't noticed that! Awesome! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
coughlinjon Posted November 25, 2016 I got really lucky and somehow convinced Steven Frank to do art again. This game he's drawing horrifying clown faces Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Jake Posted November 25, 2016 Oh man these clowns are really good. Dot Gobbler-esque even. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
badatstuff Posted November 26, 2016 On 11/20/2016 at 10:59 PM, coughlinjon said: I have a friend who's taking a crack at music with me this week, but sounds and some voices would be a huge help! Are you on slack? I can add you to our team channel I am, but I still don't know how to use it. My voice is kinda deep and very British, and I can probably do some very bad accents if you like too. Or I could get very close to the mic, speak softly, and make it a weird ASMR game. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
coughlinjon Posted November 28, 2016 This is what happens when you've never animated in Blender before - very sassy clowns Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
coughlinjon Posted November 28, 2016 Here is the final walk animation. I am so bad at this animation stuff that I'm doubtful I'll have time to revisit any of these. All the clowns in our game will walk like this, lol. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Jake Posted November 28, 2016 Seems pretty great to me. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
SuperBiasedMan Posted November 28, 2016 I love that clown's swagger. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
coughlinjon Posted November 28, 2016 The clowns are in Unity. Here is a slalom caught on security cam. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
coughlinjon Posted November 28, 2016 I spent the whole first week modeling and rigging a cube clown, so I felt like I was pretty far behind, but then I did this and now I feel like I'm almost done with my game lol Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
coughlinjon Posted November 29, 2016 bar clown is very sympathetic to your stories. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Sloane Posted November 29, 2016 17 hours ago, coughlinjon said: The clowns are in Unity. Here is a slalom caught on security cam. Animation looks fantastic! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
coughlinjon Posted November 29, 2016 lol, I have found my new passion - grossly twisting clown arms that I don't have time to fix. I was bummed that it took me a whole week to learn the basics of Blender, but now that I have the tools feel really powerful. I always felt limited making games because I couldn't make my own art, and while my blocky clown models are ugly, I do feel like I can express something close to my intentions with silly animations. The animation parts of this project have been very fun Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
