Spacerogues #1: Design

Spacerogues #1: Design

Spacerogues #1: Design

My pulpish, forthcoming space opera Spacerogues #1 – Flowers for the singer features Agent Arem Eaglestorm plus four sidekick interactive characters plus several supportting characters (with a limited interactivity, though). Character design and location graphics are fully underway now. For your records, this pixelized babe isn’t but Stella, the jazz singer of the title that is forced to remain captive in the dark & smoky red-district club known as The Black Nest. More 24×24 sprite-art panels to follow soon.

First project on the pipe: Spacerogues #1 for the ZX Spectrum (emulated)

At the time this site goes public, I will have been working for some ten days on the first project for the Reservoir. It is #1 on the Spacerogues series entitled Flowers for the singer and will solely and exclusively be programmed using the PAW and its original editors on a ZX emulator (ZXDS) running on a Nintendo DS. Quite a challenge to try and replicate that feeling of that late-at-night, dark-roomed, hunchbacked fingerfastin’ upon the  bloody rubber keyed toy.

The action is settled in Domusphera, a large technological citadel.

No game may start without a proper title screen…

… and may not unfold without a sexy interface, in this case based on Garry Capuccini’s design for Crack City. And, ¿what about the girl?

Before I start with the actual programming of the story (with locations, objects, events, etc), I am taking my time to work out a style database template for the whole series. It should accommodate an online manual using container location unused text, a graphic interface updated in realtime, a flyable airspace using coordinates, atmospheric messaging – people wandering, transport, weather, etc… and as many other features as memory permits. I will try to keep the template clean and compact to save enough space for an exciting plot and abundant and funny puzzles but it will necessarily make of it a 128k project only.

The template and database budget of the story will, obviously, be published in this site once tested so that you can use it for your own work if you want to. Source code listing of the release candidate version will be published as well.

Stay tuned.