Plotline Edited!

Gehn, Lord of Ages and I have started discussing ways to improve the way Mi’Zhika and David’s Journey‘s plots interwined and all, and this is what we came up with:

• The Age of Rifoon (aka “poet’s wife’s tomb”) belongs to Mihro’s family. He was one of their ancestors.
• Mihro had a brother who was a maintainer.
• Mi’Zhika was an illicit Age only known to Mihro, his brother and their father, an influencial writer.
• Mihro’s brother gets lost in the Desert Age. Mihro and Kutchedra look for him, but Mihro dies in the process. Kutchedra returns to D’ni and hides the book of Mi’Zhika. He keeps a copy of the linking book with him and leaves D’ni.

As for David and the other DRC characters, we found a way for them to be linked to each other. David will just be another intern on Mi’Zhika, and all three of them worked on all of the Ages involved in the project.

I can’t wait to re-write the walkthrough, backstory and site pages now! XD

Puzzles to be made…

I just counted the puzzles we still haven’t developped for Mi’Zhika (according to the walkthrough’s first draft) and listed them here. There are six of them:

Finding the imager (I still don’t know where the main “machine” should be- and how explorers should find it).
Finding the turbines in the little cave in the mines.
Fixing the imager
Finding the cave in the mines
Opening the cave in the mines
Opening the cave with the maps

Mi’Zhika’s storyline is slowly thickening up…

Walkthrough Done!

I just finished typing the walkthrough for Mi’Zhika- the island, that is, not the whole project. It is currently full of plotholes, but I don’t care- I am really glad I managed to finish it in a day since the rough draft was long, messy, complicated and written in faded green ink on green paper! Now, all I have to do is figure out what the four missing puzzles are going to be and how to make people (well, explorers) travel on such long distances without the Age itself being that huge. So far, the ideas Gehn, Lord of Ages came up with include using a special nexus or some short animation with the Smilaas. I know that a lot of of people would love using smilaas that way in the game, but it might prove harder than the nexus. Right now, nothing real specific has been planned.

The other major plothole involves Mihro and how a linguist wrote his own book. If it turns out to be “illegal” (the fact a person who was not part of the Guild of Writers wrote his own Age) might be problematic for the storyline, unless we find a way to explain why he never got imprisonned. But that, once again, is something I will think of later.

Right now, I have some serious schoolwork to do!

Mi’Zhika – Guidelines Done

I have just edited the last guidelines- the ones concerning the Ghortahnti frescoes.
I will provide “inspirational photos” soon.
Both projects are officially up-to-date now! This means that we can really start working on concept art (I will, as soon as I am done giving everyone the commissions I owe them).

That said, what will we call this thing now? If the “first part” is called David’s Journey and that the other is called Mi’Zhika, what should the project, as a whole, be called?

I’m trying to think of something that include both names… Any suggestions?

Also, please welcome Skipyau, an amazing concept artist who has just joined the group though he was already part of David’s Journey..

David’s Journey – Guidelines Done

Apparently, Gehn, lord of Ages has just submitted the guidelines needed for David’s Journey. This means that it has now caught up with Mi’Zhika (real fast!) and is in Phase Three: Concept Art.

Since there is already quite a lot of concept art on diverse sites concerning the first part of this project, I have decided to gather all the pieces needed somewhere in the docs. That should hopefully help us move on a little…

Feb. 22nd, 2011 – Update: David’s Journey now on Docs

I finally uploaded the info we needed on GoogleDocs. Now, I’ll try to help Gehn, Lord of Ages with his guidelines so that DJ catches up with Mi’Zhika as quick as possible.

We might also need a new name for the project. I guess David’s Journey will be the first part, and Mi’Zhika the second part. The whole project, though, has no real name for the moment. Perhaps we will rename it to something like “David’s Journey to Mi’Zhika“? Who knows.

I will also add pages concerning the Ages and characters present in David’s Journey, though I probably won’t digress on this considering the fact that this blog is mostly about the second part of the project; Mi’Zhika.

Feb. 21st 2011- MAJOR UPDATE!!!

MAJOR update!

Gehn, Lord of Ages and I have spoken about one of his past projets, David’s Journey, which was the first Age project I participated to before the holidays during which my brother, LeBaronNoir, came up with Mi’Zhika. Turns out that David’s Journey was kind of “asleep” (or, as I like to call it, “in coma”) for a long time now. I had, in fact, not checked out its OpenUru forum since September 2009!

I suggested that our team help him once we would be done with Mi’Zhika. This is when he had this amazing idea (I had thought of the same one except I never uttered it since I couldn’t see where it would merge) to merge both projects. It will be a difficult task, no doubt, but it may end up being real interesting and helping both parties. Indeed, let’s not forget that we still need somebody to help us with the soundtrack, while GLOA’s project needed a bit of a boost.

That said, our original plot thickens with new drama between DRC members, and another problem related to Mihro and the Ghortahnti. Where did David Ingram go? The answer lies in the very caves explorers must visit in order to decipher Mihro’s mysterious notes and figure out the puzzle that explains the famous “ghost’s apperance” in the tombs.

Needless to say, this will be exciting, though a lot of work as it means that we will need to bring David’s Journey to phase three as soon as possible so that both projects are at the same level. David’s Journey will thus have to catch up with Mi’Zhika, though all it really needs right now are guidelines and a few informative sheets before we can give it concept art and maps, as we are already doing for Mi’Zhika.

Mi’Zhika will thus be part of David’s Journey, though both are to remain slightly separate for the time being- until both are at the same planning phase, that is.

That said, please welcome Gehn, Lord of Ages, our latest teal member! Though his job for the team has not been defined yet, he will sure help us merge both projects into one.

The project has gone one step further in terms of preparation for Open Source!

The Game – Steps or Phases needed

I just wanted to put this on paper (or rather, the virtual web that is the internet) in order to remember all this better. So here goes:

Phase One: Information

This step is already finished. We now have a GoogleDocs. account to store and share our documents, a youtube account for the project’s videos, as well as an official site, a group on DeviantArt and a blog for quick and regular updates.

-> This phase is officially finished.

Phase Two: Guidelines

This step is nearly done. It consists of uploading guidelines for pretty much everything that will require concept art in the GoogleDocs account.

-> This phase is officially finished.
Phase Three: Concept Art

One of the most important steps. It consists in illustrating everything mentioned in the guidelines, from characters to buildings, terrain and animals. Concept art may come in various forms, but is absolutely necessary for the game’s development. All of it will also be used to illustrate the project’s websites.

Phase Four: Maps:

This step consists in mapping the areas players will have access to along with those that are mentioned in journals, which will be used as concept art and may not be necessarily present in the game.

Phase Five: Writings:

Everyone must have a share in this one too. DRC journals will be written at this point along with the characters’ journals and all notes and books found in the game. Ghortahnti books will also need to be translated in Ghortahnti, thanks to a special font.

Phase Six: Puzzles:

The team should discuss the possible puzzles that will be used in the game and how to insert them in there. This will also require 3D rendering and concept art.

Phase Seven: Sounds and Music:

At this point, noises present in the game should be discussed and identified. Sound effects belonging to Cyan but that can be used for the game with their permission will be collected into separate folders while the remaining, necessary ones will have to be recorded via a webcam or camera and, hopefully, the best quality possible.

Music will also have to be discussed and written as well as performed and recorded for the game.

Phase Eight: 3D:

One of the most complicated and yet important steps so far. This requires our team members to help Luna gather decent copyright-free textures while she creates the Age as it should be for MOUL, using Blender. The areas discussed in the walkthrough should be defined by now and mapped accordingly in order to help make Luna’s work easier.

Phase Nine: Assembling:

The last, and relatively fun phase. At this point, Luna will gather all the files needed for the game and insert them into the game.
Everything should be ready by now.

Phase Ten: Trailer:

Now, people should start discussing what the trailer should be like and what files will be used in it. Once recorded thanks to various softwares and assembled into an AVI. file, the video will be uploaded on Youtube using the group’s account.

Phase Eleven: Advertising:

The simplest phase. It consists in adding links to the game’s trailer and various sites on Myst forums in order to try and get help to add it to MOUL. The more fans and enthousiasts, the better.

A new member! And some updates…

Please welcome HTilden42, our new team-member and official cartographer!
HTilden42 now has full access to our documents on Google and is currently working on the maps that will be needed in the game- a tough and time-consumming job alright!

Other than that, I have finally updated the entire blog by adding the information we had so far on each page.
The pages that are left empty will either be completed later once we have more files and info to put up, or are to contain final goodies that we will upload once the game is nearly ready.
LostThyme has kindly allowed me to upload her concept art as long as it was re-sized to a maximum of 500 pixels wide/heigh and mentioned that it was hers (I have added transluscent text on each picture to this effect).
I cannot wait until we start the following stage. I will, in fact, list those “phases” or “steps” in a different post.

February 15th – Guidelines and copyright-free music…

Well, I am officially done with the guidelines, although I will need to complete what concerns the Ghortahnti frescoes and add actual dates for the timeline. That I intend to do with Izza’s help, once the whole group meets again on Chatzy.

In the meantime, I have started a prompt on our DeviantArt group to try and get people to write something for the Ghortahnti books that are to be inserted in the game. I intend to write a short song as well as little prayer-book- all translated straight away, of course. I might post its translated version on DeviantArt so as to share it with the others, as I hope they will do the same…

Other than that, I have also began to look for decent, copyright-free songs which lyrics I would change for the game. I think I will ask my friends Shahzi and Ruxanna for traditional Sufi and/or  Pahrsi hymns for the Ghortahnti. I might find something decent for Kutchedra’s theme and will tweak a Celtic and/or Armenian song or two for the D’ni. However, Peshinooti  music will be hard to come up with…
I just wish we had an actual composer and musician to work with us. That would be perfect. In the meantime, here are a few songs that may be used in the future. Please do not mind the instruments (and even less the lyrics and language), for we will completely change them along with the speed and rhythm. Please try to imagine this was all oriental 😛

 

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Z9Rc4oiqcs&feature=related
Sorry for the lame sound- imagine it was really slow, calm, with Kabyle instruments 😛

There is a medieval song, Sommer und Winter which I could not find anywhere on the internet but will provide soon enough…

Imagine this one much slower, without all the Indian instruments… and much airier vocals.

I will post more stuff soon, but I will have to look for more copyright-free stuff first Please bear with me…