Rails To Infinity - Take a look, you will be suprised!

[gRaViJa]

A short story by kevin [gRaViJa] Verhoeven
Produced by Gravity Games http://www.gravitygames.tk (website will be up when this project is finished.)

Rails To Infinity is a short story or visual novel, not a game. RTI totaly focuses on the story. The story is based on "De trein der traagheid", a novel written by the Belgian author Johan Daisne. I'm not trying to steal from him! he is often credited in the game and my topics, and at the end of the game, i will refer to him VERY clear again.The book is pretty well known in Belgium and Holland, but not in any other country. I try to be original with my projects, i don't want to make the 1001th save-the-world rpg.I decided to make a short "game" of it for two reasons. The first is that i wanted to make something were I can practise my eventing and mood-setting with. I am also working on another game called Ascension. I have written about 200 pages of story for that game. Now i felt like i wanted to practise my rmxp skills a little more before turning my story into a (rather huge) game. The second reason is that Johan Daisne's stories have always been a great source of inspiration for me. I should also thank Kan Gao (Reives). Playing his games made me realise what rmxp is capable of.

The mood of this game is melancholic, mysterious and "surrealistic realism". As stated before it's based on a book by Johan Daisne, but there are some significant changes made in the story.The language Daisne used is very hard. I had to adapt it to suite this format. I also made some changes in the overall story and characters.The basic story and situations are still the same though.

You play the nameless protagonist. In a 1950's setting, for some reason you decided to take a train to a certain destination. Only throughout the story you'll see why you took that train and what consequences this has for both the train passengers as your family back home.

Protagonist: The nameless main character. He is wise, somewhat melancholic but enjoys life as it is. He is a respected teacher in his hometown, and has a wife an a young kid.

Hernhutter: Hernhutter is a retired professor. His general knowledge and life experience are vast. He wants to protect people in his surrounding. He's also a great story teller.

Val: A young, honest student with a lot of flair. He is full of life and his energetic behaviour is very contagious. Val is very curious, which is not always a good point.

Spoiler

These screenshots are not final yet!

* note: The train moves over the tracks ingame.

* note: I'm still messing around with windowskin and font.

*note: i'll edit those down poses so they look better.

Playtime: 60 to 90 minutes of gameplay

Director: Kevin [gRaViJa] Verhoeven
Story: Johan Daisne (reworked by Kevin [gRaViJa] Verhoeven)
Music: Lennart Hillen, Brandon Abley, Yusei
Sound: http://www.freesoundproject.com, http://www.sounddogs.com (and Enterbrain)
Graphics: Fox5, Zanyzora, Reives, Euphony, gRaViJa, Maestro (and Enterbrain)

Scripts used:
SDK - SDK Team
Weatherscript - Ccoa
Universal Message System - ccoa
Auto Font Installer - Wachunga
Custom Title Screen - Moghunter (edited by me)
Splashscreens - Team genius (edited by me)
Shadows - Raitame

Betatesters: You could be here! (bugtesting/checking language/little help on the titlescreen)

Website will be online soon.
Launch date is scheduled for 31st of January 2010, but can be changed if needed.

Spoiler

I'm in the Beta testing phase now. Help here is very apreciated! If you want to Beta test, PM me. I'm also looking
someone who can fix a bug in the custom title screen and wants to help me out with a super easy saving
system.

Thanks for reading and/or downloading. I'm also working on another game, my main project. If you
are intrested, please subscribe to the forum at http://www.gravitygames.tk (when it's up) or PM.
I will be posting more info on that project soon.
(I'm searching for a spriter and drawing artist. Someone who wants to lend a hand at scripting
and eventing is welcome to).

Any kind of feedback motivates me to continue working on this project. So please post something, even if it's just one sentence, it will give me a boost of morale!

 

[dadevvtsvre]

I gotta say, this project looks really good. Your screenshots have good lighting and convey mood very well. I really enjoy games centered around trains and locomotives.

I'm not quite sure if I get a "50's" vibe, though. Your scenes (the third, fourth and last screenshots especially) seem to give off a much older feel, Victorian-esque, like in the early 20th or late 19th century. We don't know too much about the game's story so I can't quite say whether the game should take place earlier or not, but I just can't say they look like something I'd see in the 50's. Granted, I never lived during that time period, so I'm not the expert.

 

[gRaViJa]

Thanks for the feedback. It doesnt have to be in the 50's, it could be in the interbellum just as well. If that fits the tileset's style more i could change that, it wont affect the story. Thank you for pointing that out ^^

 

[ebhz.Ash.4rm]

This looks really interesting I'll lok forward to playing it, well watching, you've really adapts the features of rmxp to what you wan to do so it should be high quality design all the way through. The story sounds interesting as well and if it's very popular in it's region then it must be a classic. I hope the music matches the timeline.

 

[Love]

This looks pretty beautiful. I don't usually mind if a game is based on a novel or a story, as long as it's good and well-designed. I loved how you beautifully set the mood with the screenies. I'll actually love to help out with this, if there is anything I can do. :smile:

 

[gRaViJa]

Thanks for the feedack people. Love, if i remember right you are a pretty good spriter. Later in the game i need some character poses. Would you like to help me out with that? If so, i'll PM you in a few weeks when i get at that part of the game

Keep the feedback coming ^^

 

[Love]

Ahh I can do simple poses like blinking, happy, angry and simple stuff like that. I will gladly help out if that's what you need. ^^

 

[gRaViJa]

Hmm, I can do those thing to actually :p
I need charsets of couples who are dancing and an early 20th century nurse. It's okay if you decide not to do these. Let's continue our talk via pm's, okay? I really appreciate that you want to help me with this.

 

[Jikipoiopo]

Gotta say, this game looks beautiful! ^^ Very original and unique story, and better lighting than most rmxp games, though I've seen better. A dancing couple? I can sprite that. I'm a spriter too, if you ever need one. This game looks very nice; I'll be keeping an eye on it.

EDIT: Well, here's a work in progress. What do you think? Are there any suggestions for changes?

^^

 

[Jikipoiopo]

I gotta say, this game looks beautiful! ^^ Very original and unique storyline, and the lightinng is better than most RMXP games, but I've still seen better. A dancing couple? I'm a spriter as well, so I'll see what I can do. :wink:

EDIT:
Well, here's a Work in Progress. What do you think? Any suggestions on what to change?

^^

 

[Reives]

That's a nifty concept, gRaV. For some reason, the aspect of taking place on a train really intrigues me. Looking forward to seeing how this turns out!

P.S. @Jiki: Lol, is that the Isabelle sprite from Lyra's Melody? Not that I mind; just found it funny.

 

[Jikipoiopo]

Yup, it is! ^_^ I wasn't gonna let him use it, though, I was just showing him what I can do, and then if he likes it, I was gonna make him one with different sprites.

 

[gRaViJa]

Whew, i made it back again... Stupid virusses :s
anyway, thanks for the replies. That dancing couple look good. Is it okay if i pm you when i reach the part of the game where i need those chars?

 

[gRaViJa]

It has been ages since I updated it. Fact is I worked hard on my main project (which has improved and extended vastly) and for college. Since yesterday, I feel the time is right to continue working on this project. Tomorrow I will upload a video showing the intro video. The game itself could be finished fast, but converting the book's language to easier/more understandable English is one hell of a task (since English isn't my mother language). More info coming soon.

 

[So fist]

Very interesting project. How interactive is this visual novel going to be? Are we going to be able to explore and interact as the viewer at all or is this literally going to be one long series of cutscenes like some sort of rm movie? I'd say the less involvement the player has, the more you will need to focus on graphics, sound, and animation to keep your player engaged. That said, you would benefit a lot from really focusing on making all the graphics customized for each of your scenes. RTP is designed to be all of a games generic locations for an atypical roam the world, kill things, and save a thingie rpg. In this case you are making a movie/visual novel so your attention to detail is more important since the map is the story and not just a gameboard as rmxp/vx rtp is intended. For example your city street is nicely mapped but you want us to be sucked into your mood of melancholy and for us to be struck by the individual powerlessness that usually typifies realism. But your street is clean and the apartment doors elegant. Each building is the exact same as the next. Figure out ways to personalize this world. Is this a ghetto or the yuppy part of town? I'm not saying run away from the rtp, I'm just saying understand what it is designed for and take some time to customize it and make it fit into the environment you want us to experience.

Also don't use the overlays like the light streams in your forest. I understand you want to idealize the place since nature == good and city == rotting humanity, but you can and should achieve that through the tiles and the real lighting their shading reflects. The forest could use some other colors than green and some variants in your tree type.