Happy New Year!

It’s been a while since our last update. Don’t take that silence to mean we’re not working hard, though. Silence is good. It means we’re too busy to post anything here.

What, you want evidence? Here’s our latest completed screen. See if you can spot all the differences from the final pencil-and-paper version I posted last year.

I’ve been meaning to share this one, too.

Happy New Year, everyone.

New Screen: The Secret Entrance

Original pencils by Hazel Mitchell, colors by Jacek Grzeskowiak. Based on a sketch by Josh Roberts.

Sorry it’s been so quiet around here lately! As you can see, we’re still hard at work. This is our most recently finished screen, a secret entrance into the haunted mine area of episode one.

Sadly for our hero, ‘Rattlesnake’ Jake,  the ways appears to be blocked by a very large boulder. We know that kind of trap doesn’t turn out so well for Indiana Jones. Will Jake have better luck? And what’s the significance of all this vulture iconography, anyway? Hmm…

Work in Progress: The Long Way Down (Background Screen)

This isn’t a finished product yet, but it’s pretty close. Here’s a look at one of our newest creations, a long vertical screen that hints at some of the areas you’ll be able to explore in Rise of the Hidden Sun‘s first episode.

I figured after yesterday’s April Fool’s joke, you all deserve some evidence that we’re not ditching the 1024×768 screen resolution in favor of ye olden days 320×200 screens!

Click the thumbnail image on the right to enlarge. What do you think?

Announcement: Rise of the Hidden Sun – Retro Edition

As I mentioned yesterday, our lead animator has left the project. The fact that this keeps happening—that we get some great out-of-this-world talent, then poof! He or she moves on to bigger and better things without warning—has led me to re-evaluate what we’re doing here with this little project.

Honestly, I’m tired of having to put the game on hold every time we need to find a new professional-quality animator. So I’ve made a big decision.

We’re going old school.

King’s Quest I-style old school, to be exact: Goodbye millions of colors and 1024×768 screens. Make way for Rise of the Hidden Sun: Retro Edition in all of its 16-color, 320×200-pixel glory! I’ve already converted two screens to the “retro” format and plan to have the whole game reformatted by the end of the month.

Temple of the Golden Vulture

Entrance to the Haunted Mine

From there, it’ll be a piece of cake to animate the thing myself.

What do you think? Click here for an extended preview.

Good news, bad news

Our lead animator just accepted a job with Electronic Arts. So that’s good news for him, but bad news for us… because now we need a new animator! Anyone know anyone?

Character Design: Hawkeye and the Old Prospector

Nothing Escapes the Watchful Gaze of Hawkeye

The Old Prospector Picks His Nose When No One's Looking

If you hadn’t already guessed from the two images above, we’re making great progress on the animation front. These two characters are the work of Ron Jensen, our newest animator. Whattaya think?

‘X’ Marks the Spot

Let the Treasure Hunt Begin!

You can’t have a treasure hunt without a treasure map! But does ‘X’ really mark the spot, or is it just the beginning of ‘Rattlesnake’ Jake’s epic quest to discover the Lost City of Gold?

From Concept to Completion: Old Sierra Burying Ground

From Concept to Completion (Original Pencils by Hazel Mitchell)

So here we have the final pencil art for a new location we’ve just added to episode one. The top image is the original location sketch, which Hazel whipped up based on a description and some of my chicken scratches. (Discussed here earlier this month.)

Below that is the finished version, which reflects my suggestions for additional tweaks. The windmill and the vulture will be animated in the final in-game version of this screen.

There are four or five little “easter eggs” in here for adventure game aficionados, but I’m keeping the image size intentionally small right now so we don’t spoil the surprise. (Although the industrious among you can probably figure them out anyway…)

Three Jakes

The middle one is just right...

The poll results are in, and the verdict is a tie! Half of you were on “Team Big Jake,” and the other half were on ”Team Small Jake.” So the winner is… “Medium-sized Jake.”  I think it’s a good compromise between the two looks. Credit goes to my lovely wife for suggesting this rather obvious (to her, anyway) solution.

Poll: Is Bigger Better for ‘Rattlesnake’ Jake?

Which size sprite do you like best?

The current Jake sprite (above left) is about 200 pixels tall. I’ve been thinking about increasing it to about 250 pixels (above right). I think it will make each scene feel more intimate, although it could also have the unwanted side effect of making the screen seem too claustrophobic.

All our animations are originally rendered in Flash, so resizing him at this point is still pretty easy. Which version do you prefer?