czachaFinally, there has come the moment that I was waiting for a very long time – I can start a production diary for my own adventure game! Not because I have just put together a loose concept or created the first artwork, no. It is the right moment to begin writing about the game because I have now finished a working version of one of three acts of the full project – to be tweaked and released soon (next month) as a WIP demo. So, while much much work still needs to be done, even on the demo, from this moment on there will be always  some solid virtual entity to refer to. In other words, Frantic Franko now lives!

Below you’ll find a short synopsis what can you expect from the full game. Plus, you get to see the artwork for the main character. But this only the beginning…

1. The Story

The game is set in a fantasy world, but in one which despite considerable grit shouldn’t be treated with too much seriousness. Especially since items like carnival balloons or melted-sandwich-on-a-stick may sometimes play a big role in getting things done.

The main hero of the story is a ferocious dwarven warrior called Frantic Franko. As the game begins he goes on a long journey to a far away land just to get to the guy from a rival clan who unforgivably insulted his own. And the challenge is considerable as the offender is none other than the notorious Kinky Koval. Yet it won’t be easy for Franko to reach Koval in one piece. In fact it’s during the journey that his real problems and the true story start while revenge starts to become an even more important issue…

click for high res version

2. The Main Hero

…really isn’t a nice person. Actually he is something of an egoistic, sadistic psycho. He has a mother complex, problems with verbal communication, a tendency to attack anything that moves with his axe, and other appropriate quirks.

Also, Franko  is nearly blind (blinder even than most other dwarfs as he lost one of his eyes) so he catches the scents of things instead of looking at them. And what of an accute sense of smell he has indeed – ideal for examining hotspots in the game. Most importantly though, Franko is also equipped with a highly destructive nature in consequence of which he chooses swing his axe at things as the primary action when interacting with game objects.

3. Game Features

– a short-sighted, foul-mouthed anti-hero with a strong revenge motif and who constantly smells his way either into or out of trouble

– hand-drawn third person adventure presented in stunning 16 bit SVGA graphix

– includes music composed by Łukasz Pawlik and performed by the jazz band Kattorna

– wacky puzzle solving focused gameplay

– Full Throttle/Curse of Monkey Island style  “verbcoin” interface with some little, neat twists

– yet another AGS (Adventure Game Studio) created incredible virtual world

– three completely different environments – each with its own style, mood, pacing and ways of dealing with problems

– the innovative “a persuasive dwarf’s bag of junk” conversation system – Franko’s special equipment that helps him to manipulate conversations in exactly the way he desires, or at least makes him to appear as a complete fool, but allows to get the job done nevertheless

Soonish: The diary starts for good with a detailed description of the process behind preparing the first game section I’ve done. This game fragment will be released as a demo in May</em