Palistov's Holiday Series - Development Thread

**palistov** · 01-16-2012, 12:28 AM

This is the development thread. If you wish to download and find instructions on how to install and play this mod, go here.

A legend tells of a guarded treasure hidden in a cave, but its origin is far more sinister than one might think. It is said to have been accumulated over decades, from the belongings of treasure hunters who wandered into the cave, never to return.

This series will not continue further than St. Patrick's Day 2012's release. I will be devoting my time to school and a very demanding project which constitutes and extremely long-term commitment. Like, about a year long. Yep.

Download and play Hunter!
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Overwrite all files if needed, small patches may have been applied since the V-day mod.

This series will be released sequentially at or close to the date of each respective holiday. Hopefully I don't exhaust myself of ideas and creativity, as it can be difficult to wrack my brains enough to come up with a suitable map. Below I will list and elaborate on special features this mod will feature.

A mod based around subtle story-telling
I was very pleased with the initial feedback from Ash Winter, which was an advent map I created within a few days for a collab project. I ended up releasing Ash Winter separately, as the collab didn't come to fruition. Only a few people responded, but the comments were encouraging and positive.

The story, setting and character were all static. Instead of witnessing plot and character development, the player instead got to observe their surroundings and piece together the story from what they notice. When Cryaotic played through Ash Winter on his livestream, a lot of the comments in the chat room were overwhelmingly positive, and Cry and Russ themselves were pretty satisfied.

Since the story was simply an idea put into mapping with some added scripts for effects and theatrics, the map was easy to build, straightforward, and it just clicked with players/observers. I want to try and recreate that experience in each of the maps for each of the holidays, releasing a very short (or perhaps SHOOOOORT) story which ties into the feelings, emotions or events that the holiday represents.

Multi-Conversion, a first of its kind
I realized that these stories could benefit greatly from the customization and creativity that utilizing a full conversion format provides. When I came to this conclusion, I then began to think forward on how to package each episode of the series together with its predecessors after its release. Custom story format was not an option, since I knew that I would want to use a full conversion format for many of them.

I had learned about a month ago how to create an interactive batch file launcher as well as how to make a 100% (yes, TOTALLY) isolated total conversion. With this knowledge, I realized I could easily launch Amnesia with different sets of configuration files by utilizing the interactive BAT launcher. I would simply have to point to different config files and/or directories so that the game launched the appropriate map(s) for each episode. This would let me have each episode all compiled into the same single directory but have the application simply cherry-pick among the files which it would be using. This lets me use different options and settings for each episode, including different menus (fonts, text, positioning, background, inventory), physics (player height, speed, physics sounds) and much much more. And as an added bonus, the entire series is easy to install, easy to update and easy to uninstall.

I have yet to learn how to create an interactive bash script launcher for Linux users and a similar application for Mac users. Until then I simply plan to provide a unique executable for each episode and simply package those with the Mac/Linux releases.

Hyper-realism
I am striving (and will continue to do so) to create what I would call hyper-realistic environments. I scour for graphical faults in my map(s) and work to emulate a realistic world which the player immerses themselves in with little or no effort.

I am trying to steer clear of the supernatural for the entirety of the series, but I cannot guarantee that future episodes in the series will remain grounded in reality. A little magic is good very now and then.

Below are holidays for which I have designed or conceptualized maps.

2012

Valentine's Day
A Visit to Katherine || Every day is exactly the same for Albert. Exactly the same. But once a year, he is reintroduced to an extraordinary person who changed his life forever, and continues to guide him in ways nobody else could.

Saint Patrick's Day
Hunter || A legend tells of a guarded treasure hidden in a cave, but its origin is far more sinister than one might think. It is said to have been accumulated over decades, from the belongings of treasure hunters who wandered into the cave, never to return.