Category Archives: 3D/if

Time…Marches On

By Rubes | Published: October 29, 2010

So last night was the latest Utah Indie Gamer night, and I couldn’t make it. Bums me out a bit, because I enjoy connecting with those folks and following along with some of their projects, especially Jay Barnson’s Frayed Knights. At the same time, though, each successive gathering just seems to highlight the fact that I still haven’t reached any major milestones on this project.

It’s now the end of October, and still no Vespers. Still no demo. Seriously, what gives?

Fine, so four and a half years into the project, I’m willing to admit it’s taking slightly longer than anticipated. It was a struggle to finally reach that conclusion, but there you have it. I thought I was choosing a relatively small, [More...] Read the rest

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Adventures with NPCs Redux: Lucca

By Rubes | Published: May 28, 2010

Here we resume our efforts to bring our NPCs to life, beginning with bits and pieces of text from the IF version of Vespers and ending with a modeled, animated, and voice-acted 3D character. Last time I discussed the development of Constantin, the large hulking monk with a short temper. This time I relate the development of Lucca, who had some interesting and unique challenges of his own.

Lucca was going to be a tough character to convincingly recreate. He’s the youngest member of the monastery, a teenager who recently joined the order. He’s very attached to Matteo, one of the monastery’s father figures, and is generally an emotional character during the course of the game. Again, we didn’t have a lot of text [More...] Read the rest

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Adventures with NPCs Redux: Constantin

By Rubes | Published: April 26, 2010

We continue on with our efforts to bring our NPCs to life, beginning with bits and pieces of text from the IF version of Vespers and ending with a modeled, animated, and voice-acted 3D character. Last time I discussed the development of Matteo, the oldest monk at the monastery; the second character we tackled was Constantin, who had some interesting and unique challenges of his own.

We started out with a very general picture of Constantin; he’s middle-aged, a handyman around the monastery (he was a former blacksmith), and a notably large man with a short temper. Again, we didn’t have a lot of text to go on initially aside from a short description (which was actually removed from the game prior to the final [More...] Read the rest

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End of March Vespers Update (or, How To Drop A Girl)

By Rubes | Published: March 31, 2010

March comes, March goes. Lion, lamb, all the usual stuff.

March is always a busy month, what with GDC and sundry work-related conferences and travels. And this year, of course, there was PAX East. Man, how I wanted to be there for that. It was, by still rare accounts, an amazing show of force by the IF community, and from what I can tell a great time was had by all. It sounds like there was a groundswell of new or renewed interest in IF, which can only be a Good Thing. And, of course, GET LAMP. I can’t help but feel like I missed a significant event in IF and the opportunity to meet some great folks, but at the same time I [More...] Read the rest

Also posted in interactive fiction, Vespers | 5 Comments

2009: A Shecky Greene Kind of Year

By Rubes | Published: December 22, 2009

For Vespers, I’d say 2009 was a mixed bag. We started out with some nice momentum, on many fronts, and it lasted about half the year. N.R., as usual, was a model of consistency, churning out an impressive amount of material. He completed all of the models and textures for Act I, which was a nice accomplishment, in addition to all of our GUI and logo work. He’s already started chipping away at the additional models needed for Act II and beyond, with much of the work already done. We also got our web site up and running, and although it needs additional content, it’s good to have most of the structure already in place, with the connection to this blog. The forums are [More...] Read the rest

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