Game demo: GrimStone

[Dylan]

Hey friends,

I spent the last three months behind my computer to create a game demo of my own. It's called "GrimStone" and features this cool gargoyle character.
Effectively, it's more of a graphics demo, but you can actually walk, run and glide around in the level.

Download:
http://www.paladinstudios.com/grimstone/exe/GrimStone.zip

The original music was composed by Andreas and Matt from Frequency 44:
http://www.worldofdarkstar.de/frequency44/


Hope you like it!


http://www.paladinstudios.com/3dmodels/gargoyleposes.jpg

http://www.paladinstudios.com/levels/grimstone_stairs.jpg

http://www.paladinstudios.com/levels/grimstone_catacombs.jpg

[Runai]

Wow Dylan, this is really impressive, especially considering you designed, modelled, landscaped, skinned, animated, and coded it all yourself! It mostly didn't run very well on my laptop (stupid Intel onboard graphics -_-#), so I'll give it a proper try when I get home.

Like I told you, the general mood reminds me of Soul Reaver, which will be a great thing if you continue to build =) The music your friends did was really professional as well; I loved the track for the main level.

Heh, one thing I found myself doing was getting atop the castle, then gliding all the way down through the valley. Cool, even at this early stage!

Can't wait to see how you and your buddies develop this =D

[Maeko]

Dylan

First and foremost I have to let you know that I completely adore the demo. Honestly. You really capture the feel of the player, and I could not have done any better if I knew how to design/code like you! I love the artwork beyond imagination, and the complete natural feeling you capture though the landscape. Especially at the start of the demo the various shades of earthy tones gives the game such a pleasant feeling, and then there's the shift into the Monastery. Which changes the mood. I loved how the sun rays peered into the Monastery and lighted selected areas.

Dear god, please just take a bow for me now!

I loved the architecture, and dark color tones. The Catacombs was amazing! I loved how the eyes of the character glowed down there!! It got me all excited! I especially liked the texture of the ground in there. *_* -- Overall just gorgeous artwork!

I thought the controls were nice and smooth, and I liked the key settings you selected! :)

Here’s best wishes and hoping that this demo gets the right justice that it really deserves! <3

ENCORE! ;b

[Azure]

The files a bit too big for me to DL but the graphics look gorgeous lovely and solid *thumbs up*

[Chinomi]

OMG! FLYING IS FUN!

[Kei]

What exactly did u use to make this O.o it looks so professionally done. if u gave it to me with out telling me u made it i woulda thought it was pro seriously

[..Humanoid.Typhoon..]

Darn. ;___;
I d/led and extracted it but now it won't open.

Ahh well... the stills look really good, though. ^_^

[Dylan]

Thanks for the replies, people!

Runai:
Cheers, mate, I'm glad you like it! I am indeed responsible for all that... and it took me quite some time and energy to create it too. But it's very worth it. From here on though I'll be working with a small team.

Thanks for the compliments on the music, I'll be sure to pass them along to Andreas and Matt.

Yeah, flight is definitely a promising feature of the concept, it should be fully explored and improved upon. Very cool that you got some fun out of it already. :)


Maeko:
Thank you very much for appreciating my attempts at lighting - I did mean to use colors to convey emotional experiences. And the fact you noticed the glowing eyes proves you took a detailed look at the demo, which I really appreciate!
Ironically, the ground texture in the catacombs was done literally on the night before the deadline... so I'm happy you like it!
I personally feel the controls need a lot of tweaking, as well as the camera system. I'd prefer to use a gamepad, since I'm a total PS2 fan these days myself.

Thanks a bunch for your detailed and positive comments, Maeko, I really appreciate it!


Azure:
Kindly thanks!
Would you please tell me what is sort of your maximum download size? I should try and stay under it, especially if for example I want to make a little demo movie out of all this.


Chichiri Miko:
Tee hee... that's a fairly specific reaction, but I'll gladly take it! Thank you! :)


haku2pure:
I used 3d Studio Max, Photoshop and Quest3D. Thanks for comparing it to professional stuff, that might mean I'm almost a professional myself. Now all I got to do is find a job. ;)


Humanoid Typhoon:
Sorry to hear that. Needed to run the demo are a "fast" computer, a "good" graphics card, Windows 2000 or higher I think (though W98 should work too), and especially DirectX 8.1 or higher.
If all that is in order, could you please let me know the exact error message you get? Thanks!

[Ridgewolf]

I've been in love with this game since before this thread. :D

Soon, hopefully, very soon, I will have tested the demo. (currently does not have the necessary components)


Dylan, you da man. 8)

[arick86]

wow... that was really cool... and the graphics work is excellent... the catacombs reminded me of the mines of moira... it was really cool... I hope that becomes a real game cause i would play it!

good luck to you!

and the people who composed your score are awesome!!!

[Dylan]

Thanks!

Unfortunately, in the last six or seven months, this project has been dormant. Way too much "real life" work to distract me.

I can't say if this game will ever be continued, I expect I will picke it up again at some point. My current plan is to start up a new company, work three days on commercial, paying projects, reserve one day for game development, and have an extra buffer day for tough deadlines. Without deadlines, it's a free day. :)

[Jason Axelrod]

It IS really addicting to fly around. I fell off the map though and didn't have the patience to fly back up. Unfortunately my graphics card is out of date and so I couldn't experience it to the fullest... but even with what I saw it is very impressive. Very jealous, but hopefully I'll be able to do things like that in the future as that's what I'm going to community college to study.

[Dylan]

Ha, I probably spent 20% of the development time just testing the game demo, flying and flying and flying wheeee! :)


I'm really glad you like it, thanks!


Expect more fun things in the near future!