Hi there!
Little over a week ago I started to learn Flash and ActionScript 2.0 with the hopes that eventually I’d be able to come up with something really quite brilliant!
You see, up until recently I was the author of a small-ish webcomic called Dreamleak. It was alright, I guess, a few thousand visitors each week and nobody seemed to complain! It’s just after a while I got bored of it because, oddly enough, I’m not actually that keen on webcomics. They’re OK I suppose, but coming from a film and TV background I find webcomics lack somewhat in depth, atmosphere and audience immersion. However, there is no better way to distribute content regularly to such a vast potential audience.
I came up with the idea of continuing my comic but almost in the guise of a point and click adventure game. Looking back on such games as the Monkey Island series or the early Lucas Arts Point n’ Click adventures I remember just being completely enthralled in both their game worlds and their stories. I believe there is no better way to achieve such a high level of immersion than with a game and with the dynamic qualities of Flash and ActionScript regular updates shouldn’t be that hard to achieve…surely?
Just to clarify, I’m not wanting to make a game here. I want to take a webcomic and present it in a different format that is similar to a point and click game. For example, when reading a normal webcomic and you want to read a particular story arc, you click on the archive page and then you click on the story arc you want. What if you actually had to go and find your ‘story arc’ somewhere in a completely open, free roaming world where if you’re not careful you might happen to come across some previously unseen pathway and upon investigation you find a completely new story or mini-game or short animation or who knows what!?
The stories will be told in a fairly standard comic strip format but you just have to make your way to them first!
So yeah, sorry for blathering on but I’m quite excited by the whole thing! At worst it’ll be a rather cool little interactive flash game/comic but at best it could completely revolutionise the way millions users experience reading their webcomics! Maybe.
Heh, well I guess if you are still reading by now then you must be atleast slightly interested in this idea. As I mentioned waaay back up there I recently just started learning Flash and ActionScript and since I’m sort of just an artist/writer (technical ineptitude HOORAH!) something like what I just described above is merely just a far off fantasy. I came here kinda hoping I could find someone (or some people? :D) who would either
a) like the sound of the idea so much and jump aboard the project as a lead programmer/GOD OF CODE or
b) just give me general hints tips advice or all of the aforementioned.
So here’s a .FLA of what I’ve come up with so far : http://www.dreamleak.co.uk/theglen_test.fla
Or a just a .SWF if you fancy it: http://www.dreamleak.co.uk/theglen_test.swf
My first and foremost problem is that the background here is supposed to have a 3D perspective depth to it if that makes any sense. And the camera is supposed to scroll along with the character as she moves. I’ve tried following tutorials and looking at working examples but I just cannae seem to get it. I feel it’s pretty important to get this problem solved first because I wish to create a basic environment engine so then I can start working on actual content and u’know…things. Any advice at all will be appriciated!
Thanks!
(and sorry for the epic post…)
