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Trader of Stories - chapter 2
play it now:

Trader of Stories - chapter 1
play it now:

A Grain of Truth
play it now:

Bell's Heart
You can play this game on various websites. Just type Bell's Heart into your browser.

The Trader of Stories (old)
Only playable demo is avalible. You can download it by clicking on this link.


Sunday, December 20, 2009

Death

I like to present you a new character from the world of ForestBed. His name is Porteur and he is Death. He lives in the Land of the Dead, which is called the Roots, and as one can guess is place below the ForestBed between the roots of the Great Oak. In this picture You can see how his morning looks like. He is prepering for his work reading his ToDo list.
And yes, he is smoking, and yes, he knows it is not healthy. But he is death in person. How worse can it be?
Oh, and he hates his job.

death's todo list

Tuesday, December 15, 2009

Adalbert's library - inside

I have made myself a little break from the game as I had some jobs to finish but now I’m back. I’m working on the interior of the Adalbert’s library. And so the counter moves to 15%. Later I will add also a corridor and two rooms.


Adalbert's library - inside
Igromania, a Russian games magazine, has asked me for an interview. Here the link to it. (page 62)

Thursday, November 5, 2009

News

Demo updated
My friends responsible for English Proof have found tons of errors in the script. If it weren’t for them I would never find out how lousy my English is. I have also changed one soundtrack. The corrected version is ready to download.


Counter
On the right you can find a counter. It represents, in percentage, the progress of the game making.


Wednesday, October 28, 2009

Feedback

Like before I’ve received a great feedback from the players. There were lots of comments and lots of new interesting ideas (special thanks to Xelanoimis, Tramponline and Myles Blasonato).
There was a bug in the demo that blocked the game if one of the Wiseman dialog options was chosen a second time . I’ve fixed it and updated the demo for download.
Following your advises I’ve also changed few things in the gameplay:

- the background in the inventory window was changed;
- inventory items are now without a pixel perfect mask (you can select an item just by clicking on the appropriate slot);
- right mouse click also skips dialog text;
- the mouse cursor is now hidden during the noninteractive parts of game;.

I you have more ideas how to improve the game I will gladly hear them.

Monday, October 26, 2009

Interview by Hardy

Igor Hardy has recently made an interview with me abort the game „the Trader of Stories”. You can read it on his website.

Thursday, October 22, 2009

New demo release!

It took longer then I’ve expected but the demo is finally complete. What’s new? Pretty much. The first location with the Wiseman was extended and a new location was added. Along come two new characters to talk to, some riddles to solve and a main menu to… well, use.
Like before you can download the demo from my portfolio from the "freebies" section or by clicking directly on this link.

www.rudowscy.com/marek/files/theTraderofStories.zip

Your feedback was great and it had really big influence on the gameplay. I know I can count on more. Every comment shall be appreciated.

If by starting the demo you will receive an information about missing a file named d3dx9_34.dll you can fix it with the help of this link.

Have a nice game!

Monday, September 28, 2009

Education is the key to success

I’ve planned to release the next demo by now but my beta testers (huge thanks!) have suggested me some changes which I’m trying to bring into effect. Please be patient.
In the meantime I’m working on a new location which shell be Adalbert’s library (the books Myosotis have used to persuade the Wiseman came from Adalbert). He’s a scholar and he’s living in an old library. Although a new building for the university library was erected students still prefer to use the old one. Especially that its owner eagerly serves with them advise.
Below is a conceptual sketch and the final drawing for this location. Firstly I didn’t indent to make it such a busy place but then I thought that the students would bring a little more life to it. The building itself was inspired by a library I found in Poland in the city of Jelenia Gora.


conceptual sketch



final drawing

Sunday, August 30, 2009

Main menu

Quick look on the main menu I was talking about previously. It will show at the beginning of the game and every time a player will hit the “escape” key.

main menu

load window

quit window

Thursday, August 20, 2009

Game poster #01


I’m working now on a main menu for the game which I will show in a few days. But for now, being tired of programming, I decided to make myself a brake and draw an illustration for the game, something like a game poster. I’ll probably make some more in the future.
This one presents two half faces. One is Myosotis (the main hero of the game) and the second belongs to Griffe (who was described a post ago).

Friday, August 14, 2009

Griffe


He may look like an evil boss character our hero could meet at the end of the game but looks can be misleading. That doesn’t mean that he does not have anything on his conscience, but on the other hand – who hasn’t? The real reason why he’s not an evil boss character is that this game doesn’t have any. Is the world a better place without them? Not necessarily cause evil can handle itself easily without them.

So who is this guy? Well, one more mystery to solve, that's for sure.

I’m not certain how to name him. He’s original name I gave him years ago was Griffe, which means “Claw” in French. Maybe I’ll stay with that or maybe You have some ideas?

Wednesday, August 12, 2009

Sketches

Here are some quick sketches of some characters you shall meet during the game. I’ll not give away any details concerning them by now. You will have to wait for the color version of them with I promise to deliver soon.

Thursday, July 23, 2009

Vacations

I’m going on a vacation so for about 4 weeks there shall be no new posts about the progress of the game. That does not mean that I’m not working on it.
Nice vacation to you all.

Wednesday, July 15, 2009

Neesan - older sister

Neesan, older sister of Myostis, is another character of the “Trader of Stories” game. She's a shoulder to cry on but can also quickly put you in place. Being a single mother on a husk farm is a hard full-time job and requires a strong hand and even more stronger will.
I present here her character in the game environment (from sketch to final design), a conceptual sketch and some cutscenes with her.

conceptual sketch of Neesan


Neesan preparing a meal (in game environment)



a shoulder to cry on…


and a helping hand when needed

Monday, July 13, 2009

The game from the kitchen side

A home could not exist without a cozy kitchen. And so a room with a stove, a sink, a bunch of jars, little boxes with spices and a table, which is a centre of all kitchens in the universe became a new location in my game. More interactive objects in this one and a puzzle (about which I shall speak later).



Wednesday, July 8, 2009

Coni - Myosotis niece

"It was a long time since I last visited home. Traveling through distant lands in search for my past I often thought: what is this THING that describes a person? One’s actions? But if there is no trace of them in my memory how can I be sure who I am? One’s desires? One’s close ones?"

What a home would be without a family to share it with? And a game without NPC’s (non playable characters)?
During Myosotis visit in her home she will have the opportunity to spend some time with her family. Firstly let me introduce her niece – Coni. Once again from conceptual sketches to final drawings.

conceptual sketches of Coni


Coni making some jewelry form husk shells – in the game she is sitting in the orchard.


Coni in her dialog window.

Saturday, July 4, 2009

Home Sweet Home

I’m working now on a new location which shall be Myosotis home. She can be a lone wanderer but she still has a home or at least four walls and a roof. She does not live there alone and soon I shall present other occupants. For now the location from the conceptual sketch to the final drawing. Like before it composes of three separate layers which shall give an illusion of space.





Friday, June 26, 2009

Feedback

I would like to thank everybody for the great feedback and support for my project. I read all of the comments very carefully and surely I shall use the gathered information in my game.

Some of you have proposed to help me in English, for which I’m very grateful and surely will need it. Alexandru Simion had written me an email with some great advises how to improve dialogs.

Basing on your feedback I decided to put some improvements in the playable demo. You can download it the same way as the previous demo.

What has been changed:

- I’ve added some little animations in the background. It’s not much, but they put some life in the scene;

- the animation for the talking scene between Myosotis and Wiseman has been changed;

changed talking animation

- some illustrations “describing” the story of Wiseman have been added.

new "cutscenes"

I know I can count on your feedback. Thank you once more!

By now I’m working on details of the story behind the game, like miniquests and dialogs. And as fascinating it is it’s not very spectacular to show.

Friday, June 12, 2009

Playable demo

The playable demo is ready for download. I plan to make the game much bigger. Write me what do you think about it? Would you be interested in playing such a game? I count on your feedback. Every comment shall be appreciated.

Soon I will write some more about the world of “the Dreams of the Forest” but now let me tell you about the game.

The main character is Myosotis, better known as the Trader of Stories. She had lost her memory and now is traveling the world, gathering stories in search for her past.

The main character of the game - Myosotis

Her animation (as well as all other animation in the game) was done in traditional matter. Well, almost traditional. The paper and a pencil was exchange for a tablet and a pen, but beside that it is still frame by frame animation.

The frames building the “walking” and “playing the flute” animations

Beside her the demo is also habited by a Wiseman. He’s pretty strange but you would be too when your only occupation would be talking to lizards (especially if you can hear them talking back).


the Wiseman - from sketch to final drawing

There is also Zephyr, Myosotis trusted companion. The fact that he’s an animal with a intelligence of a sheep says much about her ability to establish grown-up relationships.


Zephyr with cart - from sketch to final drawing

The action of the demo is set in the Great Steppe. The land of grass and a mystery behind it. The location itself was constructed from several layers moving independent when character is moving from one side of the screen to another. It was hand-drawn by pencil and colored on computer with the use of a tablet.

the Great Steppe - from sketch to final drawing

And last but (hopefully) not least – the cutscenes. They compose of a series of handrawn illustrations sometimes in comicbook style.

the game cutscenes - from sketch to final drawing

That’s all for now. I hope you will enjoy the short demo. If you have ANY comments please write them to me.

At the beginning there was a Seed…

The Trader of Stories is an oldsql adventure game based on one of my worlds: The Dreams of the Forest. The world was created for the purpose of a comicbook. Thanks to a great support of my friends the world grew bigger and bigger. Soon it was big enough to supply not only the comicbook but also some short stories, tons of illustrations and now – a game.


a page from my comicbook, if you look closely
you can see the resemblance with the game


Why adventure game?
I use to be a great fan of adventure games. I had that luck that my gaming years (when you left computer only in case of lack of electricity) felt on theirs golden age. When technology didn’t knew the magic of 3D and everything was so wonderful flat. I miss those carefree days and I miss these oldsql adventure games.
I always wanted to make a game and when my brother had shown me the Wintermute Engine I didn’t hesitate long. I tried to make it as oldsql as possible. So no 3D renders, no quick-button-pounding action cutscenes, simple hand-drawn backgrounds and traditional animations.