[WIP][Story complete]Retracing memories

[madifier]

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Link to story is toward the bottom of this first post. As well as some changes made. Most of this post is just me keeping you guys informed this past year+.
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I thought I'd start a thread to add updates to as I work on my custom story.
My hope is that by posting this, I'll be more inclined to work harder on this project. I hesitate to even post this as I don't want to abandon it mid way through, but I have nothing else of interest right now.

*Retracing memories is the name of the story. You will be wandering this world in search of WHO you are and WHAT you were doing to know WHERE you need to go.
*There will be multiple endings. like 14 or 15 I think.
*I'm doing this for fun with the only thing in mind of receiving is attention. So anyone able to contribute will only be able to receive credit for the work they do.

Progress Report:
*I'm really happy about the couple areas I've put together thus far, but I have a long way to go.
*My aim is for a free roam map of about 150 areas. Yes it's a big project, and I'm having fun working on it. Much of the world is in fact outdoors, I'm aware that Amnesia wasn't designed for such, but that's what I"m gonna do.
*It'll probably be sometime 2013 before I'm done since I'm spending what little free time I have on it between 40-50 hour work weeks. Not to mention fighting the programs that I'm using to build it.
*The story itself is pretty well laid out, with ending scenes still needing to be made.
*I'm using a layout that many people are probably familiar with which will help the player, but I'm madifying it a bit to make things interesting. Wouldn't want it to be a direct copy.

Things I could use, but not just yet:
*Entities: For now I'm placing the generic Amnesia models, enemies, misc in my maps as place holders until I can get some custom models. I have in mind a few enemies I'd like in the game, but I'll only disclose that via PM. It wouldn't be much fun if I posted what was to be expected.
*Voice actors: I won't worry about this until the end of the project. I can safely say there are at least 4 people that speak at the end of the game. Two older men, a young woman, and a deep voice male. I say at least 4, because I haven't decided if I should use text or voice for the multiple endings.
*Music: The only time you'll hear music is in man-made areas such as taverns, castles or places of entertainment such as a group of bandits who have instruments to play. Most of the game is sound effect driven. There are a couple of endings that will need music as well.


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Further text are changes made after July 8, 2012 which is also after 17 posts to this thread.
This post being edited is an attempt to update the thread without bumping. Hopefully.

Worked on 3 maps this week all involving the east coast shoreline which wraps around the forbidden woods. Hopefully the forbidden woods will be done this coming week. My next update will unfortunately be the end of the month, as I will be on vacation and will not have access to my computer for two weeks. I feel the withdrawl already.

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July 29, 2012
Maps (outdoor) started: 43 out of approx 130
Maps (outdoor) completed: 0
Maps (indoor) started: 0 out of approx 15
Maps (indoor) completed: 0 out of approx 15

Ending Scenes scripted (rough draft and happy with them): 6 out of approx 16
Ending Scenes finalized: 0
Background stories scripted (aka, notes): 3

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Aug 5, 2012
Maps (outdoor) started: 48 out of approx 130
Maps (outdoor) completed: 0
Maps (indoor) started: 0 out of approx 15
Maps (indoor) completed: 0 out of approx 15

Been looking for a few artists to paint the ending scenes. For now I've asked my sister to do some sketches to get an idea of what seems most appealing. Also noted, 5 desert maps have been started.

Not gonna lie, I've been a bit distracted with the Tekkit version of Minecraft. I play with a few friends to satisfy my social life and I'm learning the programming side of the computer craft to see what it has to offer and how I can bend it to my will (yeah right). All things considering, if I spent ALL my time on one thing I may burn out on it. The results will tell in time. See ya next week.

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Aug 12, 2012
Maps (outdoor) started: 52 out of approx 130
Maps (outdoor) completed: 0
Maps (indoor) started: 0 out of approx 15
Maps (indoor) completed: 0 out of approx 15

One last area of the forbidden woods has yet to be finished, but that spot is the laboratory which must wait until I work on the laboratory itself. probably start on the forest of the lost, which is the third and final forested area before I start tackling the cliffs, mountainous, and caverns. Not really looking forward to it, but I have made up my mind to do so.

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Aug 21, 2012 Sorry about the delay. I lost connection to my ISP for a couple days.
Maps (outdoor) started: 58 out of approx 130
Maps (outdoor) completed: 0
Maps (indoor) started: 0 out of approx 15
Maps (indoor) completed: 0 out of approx 15

Made a quick run of my maps in game, I have a few places that need repair since nobody wants to see a sky box through the ground. Also gonna need more trees in places, but other than that it's looking alright. However a completed map consists of { decorations, unique features, creatures, sounds } that sort of thing. lots to do. lots to do.

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Aug 26, 2012
Maps (outdoor) started: 64 out of approx 130
Maps (outdoor) completed: 0
Maps (indoor) started: 0 out of approx 15
Maps (indoor) completed: 0 out of approx 15

Halfway done with laying out the outside area.
I wonder how much grief I'm gonna get when people see how rough everything looks. Then again that may play well toward the classic feel of THIS world.

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Sept 2, 2012
Maps (outdoor) started: 66 out of approx 130
Maps (outdoor) completed: 0
Maps (indoor) started: 0 out of approx 15
Maps (indoor) completed: 0 out of approx 15

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Sept 9, 2012
Maps (outdoor) started: 68 out of approx 130
Maps (outdoor) completed: 0
Maps (indoor) started: 1 out of approx 15
Maps (indoor) completed: 0 out of approx 15

Thought I'd take a break from outside and try building an indoor area. The overall shape is easy to layout, but determining what each room should be is going to be the trick. Not to mention what kind of stuff is going to be laying around. I want each place to have a theme if-you-will. Although one human is going to have roughly the same survival stuff as another, the interest of one person is different from another.

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Sept 16, 2012
Maps (outdoor) started: 70 out of approx 130
Maps (outdoor) completed: 0
Maps (indoor) started: 1 out of approx 15: (worked on a few rooms of Laboratory)
Maps (indoor) completed: 0 out of approx 15

I think decorating these rooms is going to take a lot of mental effort. I knew the first indoor area would take a while, but once I get it under control, all the other indoor areas will go up pretty quick.

Been having some life issues recently. Also been wondering if this is going to be worth it in the end. However, the view count continues to grow which gives me encouragement. Seems like people are moving from Amnesia to Slenderman as of late.

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Sept 23, 2012
Maps (outdoor) started: 74 out of approx 130
Maps (outdoor) completed: 0
Maps (indoor) started: 1 out of approx 15
Maps (indoor) completed: 0 out of approx 15

The bulk of "Forrest of the Lost" has been laid out, still have a couple left to do, then it's off to the "Cavern of the Dead" which leads up the mountains. Should be pretty simple, with the exception of being underground. Hope you guys don't mind me using the same two rocks repeatedly. Don't worry, I may be using the same simple models, but there are hundreds of ways to resize and rotate them for unique looks.

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Sept 30, 2012
Maps (outdoor) started: 76 out of approx 130
Maps (outdoor) completed: 0
Maps (indoor) started: 1 out of approx 15
Maps (indoor) completed: 0 out of approx 15

I managed to come out of Tekkit, but I've started working on an old project I wish I could finish up. Either way, I'm still plugging away at my custom story.

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Oct 7, 2012
Maps (outdoor) started: 78 out of approx 130
Maps (outdoor) completed: 0
Maps (indoor) started: 1 out of approx 15
Maps (indoor) completed: 0 out of approx 15

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Oct 14, 2012
Maps (outdoor) started: 80 out of approx 130
Maps (outdoor) completed: 0
Maps (indoor) started: 1 out of approx 15
Maps (indoor) completed: 0 out of approx 15

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Oct 21, 2012
Maps (outdoor) started: 82 out of approx 130
Maps (outdoor) completed: 0
Maps (indoor) started: 1 out of approx 15
Maps (indoor) completed: 0 out of approx 15

haven't decided if I want to keep the original layout of the buildings or if I should alter them a bit. It is in fact a tribute to an old game, but I'd like to make it a bit realistic as well.

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No update this week. Time got away from me and life is being a pain.
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Nov 4, 2012
Maps (outdoor) started: 89 out of approx 130
Maps (outdoor) completed: 0
Maps (indoor) started: 4 out of approx 15 ( worked on 3 places. Two abandoned islands and the prison )
Maps (indoor) completed: 0 out of approx 15

Gonna level with you guys, I'm going to take a break for a while. I thought I'd spend today really getting a jump on lost progress to compensate for that. Although I haven't shown you guys anything, it's been interesting seeing the view count continue to rise. I don't know if that's curiosity of new people or maybe I have some followers. Either way, I'm doing my best to keep you informed. Thanks guys. In a couple months my finances will open up a bit and maybe I can invest in some people's skills to help me out. I don't have a clue what the going rate is for modelers, but I'll find out soon enough I suppose.

The first model I'd probably look for is a "Witch's Carriage". An abandoned tattered carriage that once was a portable potion stall. No horse, no witch, just some of the bottles remain with strange symbols on them. The old hag would have lived out of it while she traveled around, much like the merchants of older times.

See you in a month or so, Sunday as always.

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Dec 2, 2012
Maps (outdoor) started: 89 out of approx 130
Maps (outdoor) completed: 0
Maps (indoor) started: 5 out of approx 15 ( worked on 1 place. Mountain Temple )
Maps (indoor) completed: 0 out of approx 15

Had a friend of mine wander through the Laboratory; got some ideas on how to make it better and problems to work out. That's pretty typical with early stages of development. For now everything is just a layout. Started playing with Blender, so maybe I can add some unique things to the game. Here's hoping.

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Dec 9, 2012
Maps (outdoor) started: 89 out of approx 130
Maps (outdoor) completed: 0
Maps (indoor) started: 6 out of approx 15 ( worked on 1 place. Sanctuary )
Maps (indoor) completed: 0 out of approx 15

Blender is going to be quite the challenge. Useful, but intense to learn.

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Dec 16, 2012
Maps (outdoor) started: 89 out of approx 130
Maps (outdoor) completed: 0
Maps (indoor) started: 6 out of approx 15
Maps (indoor) completed: 0 out of approx 15

Technical difficulties:
Having a devil of a time with the .dae export. I export my mesh with texture and I see the test.dae and test.msh in my folder, but when I import the test.dae into the model editor, either nothing happens or an invisible cube shows up. Wait, something happened this time, a pink cube showed up with menu bar icons on it.... That ain't right. I move my mouse to the window title bar and the texture changed to randomly spaced white brick shapes all over the cube....(insert long pause since my brain just crashed). I've looked up 10-20 tutorials, followed them with a fine tooth comb, and still malfunctions occur. I don't know, just frustrated at the moment.

blender 2.63
windows 7 64bit
python 2.5.4 and python 2.6.5, not sure which I'm referring to.
I haven't noticed any errors to speak of.

Game Updates:
The mesh I'm currently building is in fact the terrain of the world. No more traveling along flat planes and no more using over scaled rocks to simulate walls and cliffs. With a bit of luck, the caverns I had in mind will look nicer as well. Once the overall "world" is set up, the sections will be divided out between individual maps. That's the plan.

Had a buddy of mine run through what little I've put together while giving him verbal descriptions of what he would see if they were there. Took about an hour or so before he realized WHERE he was and was ecstatic about what I was doing. At my current rate, I said it'd be 2013 before it'd be done, and I'm still hoping for this year, but that could change.

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Dec 25, 2012
Maps (outdoor) started: 89 out of approx 130
Maps (outdoor) completed: 0
Maps (indoor) started: 6 out of approx 15
Maps (indoor) completed: 0 out of approx 15

Merry Christmas guys. Sorry I couldn't bring you guys anything this year, but perhaps next time. Spent 3 hours straight fighting the blender to level editor conversion and may have had success. See you guys next week.

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Dec 31, 2012

Not a whole lot accomplished this week, but that's to be expected I suppose. Still fighting Blender to Editor conversion. I did go back through some of the notes and scenes I made up and revised a bit since they were first drafts and all. I'll probably go through and give them more detail at some point. Here's to a New Year.

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Jan 06, 2013

The festivities are over at last. Been running through a couple Blender tutorials, as well as working on other projects. I had some success importing a basic object, but I'm having trouble with something a bit more complex. I'll make something work if all else fails. I may also need to focus on my job at the moment because of potential layoffs. Here's hoping for the best.


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Jan 20, 2013

Sorry about the delay. After my previous few edits of this thread I've decided not to update again until I've actually made some GOOD progress. Still dealing with the conversion from Blender to Amnesia, as well as being side tracked by other things. I don't know when the next update will be, but I will have the entirety of the outside terrain done. It amazes me how one little problem can be such a stumbling block. And when it breaks, it's all down hill from there... mostly. Take care guys.

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Mar 17, 2013
Long time no see. Thought I'd let you know I'm still alive. I will be updating soon. However, it may not be what you were expecting. See you soon.

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July 3, 2013
Story has been completed and is undergoing story bug testing from a few people on my facebook profile. It saddens me that I lack the skill to bring you a game, but I will not leave you guys high and dry. I WILL bring you a story once it has been refined and filtered of holes.... 99%.... yeah. My open office word document says it's 85 pages long. Some of that is space between pages to separate sections, some are copy and paste elements like enemy description, but good grief there is a lot of material. Again the story is located in my facebook notes section, but I'm uncertain if I can post a link. Will touch base soon.

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July 28, 2013
I did a Google search for "Retracing Memories" and I found someone had copied my post to another forum. I'm severely irritated about it, but it wasn't unexpected either. This thread and my facebook page are the only places you'll find information on my story.

As promised, here is a link: https://www.facebook.com/notes/matthew-d...2596703647

I couldn't fit everything into one note, so I divided it up. Links are provided to navigate between notes. If you want to comment about the story, do so on facebook please. I will be sending an email to a guy at nintendo, to let him know what I've done. I've also invited Russ_money to have a read, but I haven't heard back. I've spent more than a year on this project, so you can probably imagine I'm both anxious and nervous about feedback. A big thanks to Frictional Games. I hope you enjoy it. Before you leave the story totally, please look at the credits note; you'll find spoilers there.

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July 30, 2013
Opps. Sigh, as usual I find things unexpected. My note is public, but you have to have a facebook account to see it. Everyone has facebook these days right? probably not. I'll look for another viewing option for those that don't want it. Just my luck. I won't be able to tell if people have looked at it either unless they hit the "like" button.

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Aug 28, 2013
Okay, I think Kindle may be the way to go. I will be leaving my story on my facebook profile, but I'm currently making changes to the format of my story making it an interactive book, adding some details here and there, and fixing errors that I see. Once it's on Kindle, that's probably going to be it for me.

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Sept 15, 2013
Nearly done converting it to an interactive story that's easier to read. I thought about adding just a little bit more to it, but we'll see how that plays out. With my luck it won't upload to Kindle properly.

Success at last. Kindle was going to charge people to download, so screw that. They also converted my pdf to an html document which tore up my story into tiny pieces and threw them back together with sticky tape. Google search lead me to scribd.com

Here is a link to my story in the style of a book. FREE TO READ.
http://www.scribd.com/doc/168443456/Retracing-Memories

I've been finding mistakes every great once in a while, so I apologize for the errors and will correct once they are found.