A Bad Place

What starts out as a pretty normal day takes a turn towards the strange when the janitor Jean Doue is tasked by his boss to let the journalist Jezebel Morèvan into the eerie house at the outskirts of town. An abandoned house with as many secrets as the people who enters it. Let the nightmare begin.

[abadplace-game]

Unhealthy item.

Jean is a smoker and this is his cigarettes

It is drawn in Illustrator and edited in photoshop as the majority of the items I've done. There is a lot of work on each item (especially because I'm a bit of a perfetionist) so it takes a few hours to make a item and this one took a bit longer because there is text on it, which is in French if anyone is wondering.

/ Evil Usagi-chan

[abadplace-game]

Sneak-peek screenshots

Crowd here with a sneak-peek of two of the spirits/monsters you'll meet in the house (the surroundings might be subjected to change further down the line): The Fire-Djinn and the a ghost child and her toys.

Speaking of the spirits/monsters you'll meet… The main idea is that each spirit/monster will have two different ways of dealing with them. Both ways will be equally valid to get you to YOUR OWN goal (or rather, our main-character's goal), but not necessarily to the spirit/monster's goal. However... trying to appease the spirit/monster is generally more dangerous and harder to do for our protagonists. And while the other method is generally easier and less dangerous, it might hold greater consequences further down the line. But then again, appeasing the spirit/monster is probably going to give consequences of its own… for some more than others.

Now, back to under the rock with me until next post.

[abadplace-game]

Text And New Sprites

Hi! Crowd here with some more stuff. This time with a conversation showing off some of the new sprites, as well as giving a general idea about how the "text-colour" is supposed to work. It also gives us another look at Jez and Jean’s personalities.

The rest Under the cut to save space:

As you can see, Jez and Jean’s full-body sprites have gotten an update in appearance. They have also received more poses than the single/original “default”/”neutral” one they had before.

Now, regarding said text-colour:

The idea is that the colour of the text is going to differ depending on who’s talking. As you can see in the above conversation, Jez primary colour when speaking is purple. Jean is an interesting case when it comes to his speech-colour... His colour for speaking normally (as in "normal volume of loudness") is supposed to be black. But since he tend to speak pretty quietly his speech-colour reflects this by turning into a grey colour instead. If he speak at a ”normal” volume, the colour turns black again though. Jean is also prone to mumbling to himself, which is also shown through his text, turning it into an even lighter shade of grey, as well as it turning slightly transparent. When mumbling, nobody can hear what he's actually saying. It's more of a quiet whining most of the time now that I think about it...... that or pointing out something that's actually relevant... Geez, you really need to speak-up more Jean!

With that said, I’m going back to beneath my rock until the next post. Crowd out!

[abadplace-game]

Update from Crowd

So…. Yeah… Crowd here...... I'm still horrible at remembering that I own an account... and Bun-bun finaly figured out how to make it possible for me to edit the “A bad place”-account... I haven’t been able to do that until now... 

Those things combined with real life getting in the way of stuff and we have an air-head whose account(s) only gets updated once in a while. Oh well… Let's make up for that shall we? I'll make sure there's a couple of updates the coming days. Said updates is going to be regarding the game me and Usagi-chan is currently working on: A bad place.

We've made a lot of progress, but we also still have far to go. But hey, I figured out how to make bigger sprites! (Something that makes a lot of things SOOOOOOO much easier for me.) I also managed to get ahold of some sprites from RPG-maker XP that I added to the game (a lot with some editing… generally the contrast and darkness of them). Some sprites also needs to get done from scratch, but most of those are the characters that will appear during the game. Under here you can se some of the updated layout, as well as Jean’s new, ”taller” sprite.

Some screenshots under the cut (for space):

Old Kitchen

New Kitchen

The kitchen’s layout is more or less the same, but it has gained more equipments and some of the old ones have been edited to better fit the environment. You can also clearly see the difference in sprite-size when it comes to Jean compared to the previous one.

The garden/outside the house have benefited from the XP's counterpart when it comes to trees, bushes and flowers... As well as outside-stuff in general. It’s trees makes a lot of more sense in size when compared to Jeans current sprite. ……I still need to edit the door to the mantion to match the title-picture though… I’ll get to that.

A screen-shot of the basement. Still under construction. We’re talking about how dark we want the place to be when the player is down there… we’ll most likely settle for having it being different depending on WHEN you go down there, as well as what you bring with you. The current picture is most likely the brightest of all possibilities and probably require that you've found a functioning lantern (the brightness will be edited to have a more yellow tint in that case). Otherwise your field of vision is going to be far more limited and, at its worst, you might only have a tiny circle light to work with… Be careful not to get yourself lost!

You might come across some rooms that are ”shaded”, but not completely devoid of light. Depending on where in the room you stand, this will also apply to Jean himself.

Simply of the general rooms in the house. Nothing that special, but I wanted to show how some of the rooms in general might look with a lot of boxes and random stuff just lying around. The house has been left unused for a very long time. And whoever lived there last seem to have left a lot of thing behind... I do wonder why.......

I am also going to make updates/post regarding full-body sprites (those that appears whenever the characters are talking), text colours (for when different characters are talking) and some "evolution of" post regarding the visual evolution of the main-characters (as well as one extra). I will also add a post with a smal sneak-peek of two of the monsters/spirits you will meet in the game. One with a close-up of the creature and the other simply in the room it appears in. This might not come in order they’re mentioned though.

Anyway, that’s all for this post. Now I’ll get back to underneath my rock to fix the other stuff!

[abadplace-game]

We are doing stuff, I promised!!

And once again we left tumbler to die. Sorry for that but the one responsible ( namely Evil Usagi-Chan) has been to busy to put things up. Plus the only thing we hav been able to share is just a lot of text stuff that's not that fun to show. But we have been working a lot so this is What is going on. 1, We are trying to make a demo! We still have some way to go to make it happened but we are working on it. 2, screen shots is going to show up in a near future! We have visual stuff that we can show off and we are going to do it. 3, visual evolution of characters! We are thinking abut show how some characters visually evolved. 4, Usagi is going to be available in the ask 24/7, so you can pretty much make her life hell as revange for her neglect of tumbler.

[abadplace-game]

We are doing stuff, I promised!!

And once again we left tumbler to die. Sorry for that but the one responsible ( namely Evil Usagi-Chan) has been to busy to put things up. Plus the only thing we hav been able to share is just a lot of text stuff that's not that fun to show. But we have been working a lot so this is What is going on. 1, We are trying to make a demo! We still have some way to go to make it happened but we are working on it. 2, screen shots is going to show up in a near future! We have visual stuff that we can show off and we are going to do it. 3, visual evolution of characters! We are thinking abut show how some characters visually evolved. 4, Usagi is going to be available in the ask 24/7, so you can pretty much make her life hell as revange for her neglect of tumbler.

[abadplace-game]

Why we don't have any progress loggs...

Jack: Crowd! Why don't you tell me about how you guys work?

Crowd: * spacey voice* I draw stuff... and do some other stuff......

Jack: .....okay...... *go's to ask Evil Usagi-chan instead* Hey Bun-bun, can YOU tell me about how you guys work?

Evil Usagi-chan: *evil voice* STOP DISTURBING ME WHEN I'M WORKING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Jack: o_o

[rpgfun]

Do you like working alone or on a team?

[abadplace-game]

I love working in a team but I also have the privilege of my co-worker begin one of my closest friend's. Me and Crowd have a lot in common but we are also very different, so when we discuss stuff about the game we are making it's interesting how one of us is thinking about something the other one don't. /Evil Usagi-Chan

[abadplace-game]

how's game progress going?

It's going well but there is still lots to do^^

[abadplace-game]

Evil is answering the ask!!!!

Evil Usagi-Chan will be hanging out in the ask and answering your questions about the game and how com we suck at updating our Tumbler. So ask, Ask ASK!!!!

[rpgfun]

What are inspirations for your MC?

[abadplace-game]

Well there was a specific type of game personalitie Crowd wanted to deconstruct, so after some talking and fleshing out a character we ended up with Jean. /Evil Usagi-chan

[rpgfun]

What's your MCs cultural background like? How does it effect their actions and story?

Yay!! Another question!! Question #17!

[abadplace-game]

*try desperately to com up whit a name that doesn't revile the plot twist* *fails* * stands in the corner of shame* / Evil Usagi-chan

[abadplace-game]

Items, items and items

So ones again we have been negotiating tumbler, sorry.. Anyway we have been working a lot and one of the things Usagi-chan is pictures of items you will see when you pick them up.

These are just some of the items that Usagi -chan has drawn and she is also working on some backgrounds Crowd has asked her to make. If you have any questions about what Usagi - chan has drawn or anything else about the game, just send a ask for Usagi -chan will be ready to answer them. 

[rpgfun]

How about this? -If your MC finds you IRL, how would they react?

Question… #16??

[abadplace-game]

Not in a good way probably. / Evil Usagi-chan

[rpgfun]

Is romance important in your story? If you're making a game that makes romance secondary to the main plot, what challenges do you face to have it relevant and realistic?

oooh!!

[abadplace-game]

Realations between character is always important and "A bad place " is not an exception in that, however I wouldn't say that "romance" is an important story element in the game. Making realistic realations between characters is always hard no matter what kind of relation it is so the best thing is to trust your gut and and not be afraid to ask for other people's opinions if you are not sure. / Evil Usagi-chan

[abadplace-game]

Topics that you can not get Crowd and Evil Usagi-chan to stop talk about once they've started

The RPG horror game they are currently working on: It might be a bit obvious but Crowd and Usagi-chan can talk forever about their projects. And let's not get into the the danger of them going of-tangent into "ideas-for-potential-future-projct-ideas"... and forgetting that there are other people around... Corps party: They really, really, really like Corps party. The ORIGINAL game and the "first game"/"remake" ("corpse party blood covered") to be more exact. The sequels have a few good points, sure. But it's the first ones concept, story and general atmosphere that caught our interest. (The gameplay is also nice, but could (together with the pacing and some of the "logic"/"hints on what to do") use some work...) RPG horror games in general: Ib,  Alice mare, Mermaid swamp, Crooked man, Witches house... the list goes on-and-on. Essentially any other RPG horror game they like is a topic they can talk A. LOT. about. Although to be fair, they can also talk for lengths about game they do NOT like. Not "talking" as in "tash-talking", but legitimate criticising thing they think the game(s) didn't do well. Attack on titan: Crowd and Usagi-chan are huge fans of the manga and are always up-to-date on it. Usagi-chan even bought the Atack on titan guide book. Grey morality and complex characters tend to do that to them...  Umineko and Higurashi: Crowd love these series (the VN and mangas) pretty much to the point of obsession (Crowd: Although to be fair, the obsession-part has cooled down slightly the last year(s)) and Usagi-chan is not far behind. Crowd has actually been able to quote all of the "red truth"s from Umineko word-by-word at one point. (Crowd: I still remember most of them actually! Although it was quite a while ago since I read it... Gosh I need to re-read that serie... The reason I don't remember word-for-word any more is probably because I have read the whole serie, and therefore know the official answers. So I remember the solutions rather than the text itself. I also don't have many people to discuss the serie with without running the risk of spoiling the whole ting for them... *sigh*) Undertale: Yes, they have been really crazy about that game recently. Nice story, lovable characters, fourth-wall breaking, deconstruction of classical tropes in an interesting way while simultaneously playing a lot of them straight... It's really an awesome mix! Pandora hearts and Skip beat! : This one is all Usagi-chan. The love she has for those two manga series knows no bund and she has tried to make Crowd read them a few times. And while Crowd has considered looking up Pandora hearts... one day... probably. Skip beat! is unfortunately not really Crowds cup of tea... Then again, when Ouran is the closest thing to a "Comedy-Romance-Drama" you can get to Crowd read... and most other series is either mystery or action related... You're kinda out of luck. And Crowd... well... Crowd has A LOT of series that the scatterbrain can go on-and-on-and-on-and-on-and-on-AND-ON about for an eternity once getting started. Danganronpa, Aoharu x Machinegun, Ouran highschool host club, Steins;Gate, Digimon, Tales of symphonia (the game), Legend of Zelda (Oot & Majora's mask being the favourites), Darkwing duck... Once you get Crowd going about a serie, there's basically no stopping. Crowd and Jack can also talk about (DC/Marvel) superheroes for an eternity (although we're a bit outdated since neither liked the whole "New52"-thing and whatever-the-heck-Marvel-is-currently-doing...). Cosplay: Both Crowd and Usagi-chan love to Cosplay and have a lot of fun when they are at cons, but Usagi-chan tends to have a habit of going all out when she makes her cosplays. You could say that she is "a bit" overdedicated to the Cosplays she makes.... And while Crowd is less of an overachiever in terms of the physical cosplay (at least in comparison to Usagi-chan), Crowd instead tend to research the chosen character they cosplay to a ridiculous (almost-obsessive) degree in order to get as "in-character" as possible. 

[abadplace-game]

So Crowd message me and told me that a prototype look for Jezbel had been made and then send me this. So after laughing my ass of I decided to share this with you. REMEMBER this is a prototype look for Jezbel so it might change a bit. / Evil Usagi-chan