Monkey Island: Behind the Scenes

[Monkey Mania]

Let's see, for the demo, I need to make these sprites for Ron.

Idle
Walking
Talking
Pick-up

39 total

If there is any special animation you need, let me know.

[Fealiks]

Just out of interest, is this going to be a talkie? If so, I can supply some horribly poor quality voices, and I'm sure other members can too.

[MrHarper]

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[Monkey Mania]

The pixel above his mouth is just an artifact from the gifmaker site I used.

[Edward van Helgen]

That looks great! I think it's perfect for the game.

And I think that the "Scumm Office" should be really hectic with a lot of people walking around.

[MrHarper]

close

[Edward van Helgen]

Alright, I created a piece of music, but how can I upload it?

[Edward van Helgen]

Originally Posted by MrHarper

http://rapidshare.com/ should do the trick

Here it is!
I think it should fit quite well if there's people running all around the office to get a quite hectic atmosphere.

[Edward van Helgen]

Originally Posted by Monkey Mania

The pixel above his mouth is just an artifact from the gifmaker site I used.

You can use Gimp to make gif images too, and then you won't have the 'artifacts'.
And yet better... it's free!

[Edward van Helgen]

Originally Posted by MrHarper

Fantastic! Absolutely bloody fantastic! Seriously, I can't think of ANY way it could be improved.

I LOVE you!

Haha, thanks a lot! It's a great deal of fun to make, so tell me when you need more

[MusiclyInspired]

His head shouldn't bob like that. He looks like a puppet. Also, that track sound a little....fast-paced for an office setting doesn't it? Also not much variety beyond some crazy sax improv. I'm sorry if I sound harsh or critical but I'd just like to see this turn out the best it can be. And there's definitely room for improvement. The way I see it, everything should be refined until it's good enough to go in a final product. Rarely anything is perfect on the first go during game development. Just because it's well-done doesn't mean it's right for a given scenario.

[Fealiks]

Originally Posted by MusiclyInspired

Just because it's well-done doesn't mean it's right for a given scenario.

Yeah, that's a really easy trap to fall into. It's difficult to tell the difference between "wow, this really looks like something you'd see in a finished game" and "wow, this really looks like something that would fit in my finished game" (or whatever the situation may be)

[Monkey Mania]

The music sounds more like it could be the theme song. Maybe something with a lower tempo for the office?

[Edward van Helgen]

I'm working on something new for the office now. It's gonna sound more gloomy which would fit better with an office where everybody is sitting down instead of walking around.

[Monkey Mania]

Originally Posted by MusiclyInspired

His head shouldn't bob like that. He looks like a puppet.

I was trying to figure out a way to make the head bobbing look more natural. I guess I'll remove it.

[Edward van Helgen]

Here is the new version, it's completely different from the first one and I tried to make it more suitable for the context.

Thanks for all the comments by the way, I don't have much experience writing music, I've only written a couple of pieces, so these tips are really helpful!

[Gabez]

Very nice MIDIS... reminds me of the music in Theme Hopstial; and I love that Ron Gilbert walk! When I used to make adventure games I could never get the walk right -- in the end I just had characters skid from one location to the other.

[Rosefull]

This is a beautiful project! The brilliance amazes both me and makes me glad I joined this site about twenty minutes ago. Heheh.

Anywho, I just wanted to insert my opinion here about voices. I know it was discredited earlier, but I've personally always found games with voice acting to be much more enjoyable. Perhaps it could be optional to turn it off for people who don't share my love of talkies, but I doubt I stand alone in this either.

Besides, wouldn't it be fun to make Ron sound a bit like Guybrush, or the rival team sound a bit like LeChuck?

[hamza721]

anyone like this? I made it for Grossman

[Gabez]

Originally Posted by MrHarper

Lol at skidding, what games did you release (if any)?

The skidding was mostly from my Monkey Island inspired adventure game, The Tales of Grog Island. I made about 10% or so of the game before it got accidentally deleted. The way I was making it (in The Games Factory) would have made it impossible to ever complete, though; it was in many ways too ambitious. I found that creating a storyline, puzzles and characters was the easy part -- actually making the damn thing was what was so difficult.

I did complete some games though: "Ian 3," a game in which you fought against someone that a group of my friends saw as the school bully (it was our way of getting back at him: we couldn't win against him in school, but we could make games about him behind his back!); Also LucasArts Killer (which borrowed some of the concepts from Ian 3) and a game based on The Rounders, a comic strip series I created when I was 13 (and which briefly came back in Behind Mojo) and also Ron Gilbert's Christmas Challenge, inwhich you had to deliver presents (as Ron Gilbert, for some reason) before Christmas morning.

But that's all off-topic!

Welcome to the forums, Rosefull and hamza721! I like the sprite you made very much, hamza721 -- the hair is just right for Grossman -- though the glasses are in the wrong resolution (everything needs to be done using the same bricky pixels).

[hamza721]

Circle or square glasses?

[Edward van Helgen]

Welcome to the forums hamza!
The sprites look very good, but the glasses are still the wrong resolution. If you take a look at your picture, you'll see that the ears are for example both one pixel large. All the pixels should be the same size, so the rims of the glasses are too small.

And btw, I think the square glasses look best. Just what I would imagine with a game developer!

[Cyrus7]

The whole project reminds me of this. Probably it will inspire you?

[MusiclyInspired]

Neither of those sprites will work because the pixels are too small.

[Scabb dude]

I'm loving that new music piece for the office, can't stop playing it! Great project!

[LordTrilobite]

This idea sounds awesome!

[Edward van Helgen]

Is anybody still making art for this game? We should at least finish a functional demo.

[Snugglecakes]

haha those midis are great

[Rosefull]

I feel like I want to be a part of this, haha. I'm a so-so artist I guess, but I'm pretty passionate about writing. Can I help out with the storyline?

[bergqvistjl]

I've thought about what we could do for the insult stuff, the opponents could be rival writers vying to write SMI, and the insults could be jokes, or famous game trivia questions which he has to answer (I.e. who was the main character in Loom, Answer: Bobbin Threadbare), stuff like that. And the swordmaster could be schafer or grossman or people like that, or another member of the team thats been at lucasarts for a while, and until ron comes along is seen as the best writer. They could be fighting by writing stuff down each on a peice of paper

[bergqvistjl]

Originally Posted by Edward van Helgen

Here it is!
I think it should fit quite well if there's people running all around the office to get a quite hectic atmosphere.

Awesome! was it done on an MT-32? Even so we should do an mt-32 HQ version like the original scumm games had, just to satisfy the guys who have paid good money for one.

[bergqvistjl]

Any updates anyone? This does sound like a really cool idea.

[Edward van Helgen]

Of course I'm still interested! If you need music, just ask!
I think we should at least finish a demo. We would need a puzzle-layout, some kind of plot, dialog trees, background art, sprites, someone who is able to do the programming and music.

Let's make a plan!

[Edward van Helgen]

Originally Posted by bergqvistjl

Awesome! was it done on an MT-32? Even so we should do an mt-32 HQ version like the original scumm games had, just to satisfy the guys who have paid good money for one.

Sorry for the late answer, but I didn't make it on a MT-32. I did it on my pc and I used Finale Notepad to make the midis.

[jermy721]

hello is this still happening?