PAGETURNER 2 RELEASED!

CLICK THE IMAGE TO GO PLAY IT NOW!

After nearly a full year of development, Pageturner 2 is finally out! And not only that, but I'm also pleased to announce my NEW LockedOn website!

CLICK THIS IMAGE TO VISIT THE NEW SITE!

I figured after a few years that I really needed a better way to collect all the LockedOn stuff in one place. So from now on, this is where you can get all my news. There may still be a Games Update or two coming along but don't expect anything new from this blog. It's officially retired.

Well, it's been an incredible rush. I think I've really outdone myself with this final Pageturner game. Now to get to work on the comic... and the TEW comic... and TEWP4... and to finish up GQ2.0...

-- LockedOn, 2015.

A Setback with the Master Sleuth Edition of Pageturner 2

So there's one little problem with trying to get Pageturner 2 a proper, full release as the game I always wanted it to be. For some inane reason Scratch's offline editor also has a megabyte limit of 50mbs. Now why there's a limit when you're hosting the files on your own server is beyond me. This wasn't true for the old version of Scratch, as flawed as it was.

Until this problem is rectified, there will not be a Master Sleuth version of the game. The good news is that there doesn't really have to be. I recently implemented a much more optimized version of the dialogue box and cut the project down by five megabytes, which will leave just enough headroom for me to finish the project with reasonable gloss and polish.

The bad news is that, due to filesize cuts, the music tracks will be shorter, and therefore loop more and drive more people crazy. It can't really be avoided.

Anyway, to further tie you over until the big release, here are a few pre-production notes I dug up from back when I was developing the first game. By the way: spoilers! Don't read these notes if you haven't played the first game.

Enjoy!

-- LockedOn.

Pageturner Updates!

 

So, a new update is in order. I've been working on Pageturner 2: Not Home for this past week and something has started to become increasingly obvious. This game is going to be too big to fit on Scratch's website. Yes, 50 megabytes was simply not enough for the huge amount of content in this game.

So the question is, what will I do?

In the past, I've offered demos with full downloadable versions. However, that's usually only confused people who think that the demo is the full game. Also, the amount of people who end up playing the full version is usually less than the amount who play the demo. That's just not right.

Another option is to split the game into two parts, but of course, that has its own problems. For one, though the game is big, it's not that long, (though it does have a ton of re-playability thanks to all the usual secrets and hidden stuff I put in it), so splitting it into two parts might feel odd. Second, my guess is that this will, again, confuse people further. If, for instance, the second part gets featured or something and not the first, that could cause problems. Locking the second part off to people who haven't played the first part might discourage people from trying the game to begin with. I've been there, it's a lot of work to search up the first part of a game, and that work will restrict the overall number of people who end up enjoying my content.

So what I've decided to do is this. Pageturner 2: Not Home will come in two editions:

THE GUMSHOE EDITION

&

THE MASTER SLEUTH EDITION.

The Gumshoe Edition is essentially a stripped-down version of the game, with less images and less overall content. The entire story will still be there, and I'm keeping things like secrets, but certain story details will be missing and there will be less cutscenes in general.

The Master Sleuth Edition is a downloadable version of the game, decked out in all the bells and whistles I can muster. My original plan for investigating the crime scenes will be implemented: basically a 3D environment that you can rotate and zoom in on to search for evidence. This edition will also have more sprite costumes to liven up the dialogue, include things like cutscene animation, and have longer music tracks and just more music in general. It will be the best possible version of the game.

Hopefully, the Gumshoe Edition will be enough to satisfy people who can't download the Master Sleuth Edition. I think there's definitely enough cool stuff in it to do so.

In other news, since Pageturner: Something Other has finally been announced, it now has its own page in the comic section. Look out for more news soon — I want the release to tie into Pageturner: Not Home's release.

-- LockedOn.

New Trailer & Update Released!

Pageturner: Not Home's first official teaser trailer has been released!

As well as a brand new update, all about Pageturner 2. As you might be able to tell, I've been working on Pageturner 2 a lot this week.

Check out the update by clicking the image above.

-- LockedOn.

Pageturner: Full Gameplay Walkthrough Released!

Thanks to this video, I'll no longer have to guide people through solving the riddle at the end, which has been the most challenging thing in the game for players. And you can see where all those pesky little secrets are hiding, (there'll be more in PT2).

Speaking of Pageturner 2, I recently revealed that the next Games Update will focus on it almost exclusively — there's a lot to cover, from new characters to the entirely new, and bigger, location.

I just hope Scratch doesn't glitch up while trying to run it, because it's going to be huge.

-- LockedOn.

The NEW LockedOn Compendium

I know it's taken a while for me to blog about this, but the new LockedOn Compendium has landed!

It's now much more accurate, vectorized, and includes more info than the last, (plus much cooler sound design).

On April Fools Day I released a small game called Girl House, a reboot of my old Pixel Chix rip-off game back when I was using the GoodGames account on Scratch. If you want to play it, you'll have to wait until next year, sorry.

I've been busy the past week working on the Generation Quest 2.0 beta... it's not quite done yet, I still have yet to finish those new Razer sprites. I'm going to try and make the battles a little more interesting. Until that's out, here's a sneak peek:

Yes, I can confirm that you will be able to transform into your mech suit in the multiple areas! This opens up three new weapons for you to use, so I'm also going to try to put pockets of randomly spawning enemies in various locations so that it's easier to practice!

I'm going to hold off on releasing a new update for a little while and make a few videos for the YouTube and Vimeo channels instead.

I think the time is right for a certain teaser trailer about a certain mystery game sequel...!

-- LockedOn.

The January Intensive, The Future of TEW and More!

Due to how successful my last intensive was, I'm going to be doing one again in January. Even though the actual total creative output wasn't as high as I would've liked, there's no helping that when there's simply so much to do involving my projects. The less time I spend online the more time I spend on my projects, which means that even when I'm not being productive during an Intensive, I'm still being more productive than when I'm not doing an Intensive.

Anyway, here's some good news! The Evolving World Issue 2 is out of my hands at this point. I've done everything I need to for the most part, and so it's up to Shoko to color and shade all the pages. This means I can focus on more important things, like telling the full story of TEW.

I've decided to do that in comic format. TEW is a story that's more about visuals than anything else, and putting it in novel format was a mistake. I'm not the right writer for a TEW novel, and I'm not about to hire someone else to do it for me. So instead I'm sticking with what works: comics.

I'm going to collect a bunch of origins and stick them in a big graphic novel which will be subtitled "Prequels". This book will fill in the missing pieces of the story. You'll find out what Arrdo's deal is, why Oliver and Watch have weapons in their hands, what Catalysts 1, 2 and 3 are, how Sadie and Suave fit into the universe, and why Oliver and Watch drifted apart.

The second graphic novel will be subtitled "Sequels", and will be released after Part 4. Obviously, I can't say anything about that one.

 I'm not going to nail down dates for these books, because it takes a long time to make a comic, but I'm going to try to make each story really good so it may take a while.

While one or two stories from each book may make it online for free as a kind of preview, the full versions will only be available through purchasing. I try to release as much as I can online for free, but these are going to be really substantial volumes, filled with my usual pages and pages of behind the scenes content, posters, codes, previews, articles etc. It'll be like a huge Games Update.

I may also collect TEW Issues 1 and 2 into the Prequels book, but no matter what I do, it's going to be loooooooonnnnnnnng.

After TEW's books and Part 4 are out, and Pageturner 2 and Generation Quest 2.0 are released, I'll only have Jak's pilot to worry about, (and it's probably going to stay in script form for the most part). After that, I have one or two tricks up my sleeve. Stay tuned!

-- LockedOn.

News 20/7/14

Well, my printer's broken and it can't print, only scan.

This is sort of a blessing in disguise because there were problems with pencil lines showing through in the inked versions of pages, so this means there'll be less of that.

Summer is the LockedOn Season of Never Releasing Anything, hopefully I can break free from that trope but it'll be difficult. I will say, however, that Pageturner 2's been plotted out pretty much all the way, so I know what happens next to these characters. The sequel will take May and Benedict to a darker place, still with the same sense of humor but darker altogether, and it's all tied together with a fun and unique crime solving mechanic. More details on THAT in my next update. All in all, while it's not a PERFECT end to the series, and it doesn't provide much closure, it'll still be a fun, twisted mystery adventure.

I wish I could say I've been working on GQ2.0, but I haven't. There's a lot to do there graphics-wise and every time I play it I wish there was time to really improve it.

I drew up a design for a Razer that included cool new movement and attack types, that would add excitement to the stand-and-blast battles, but unfortunately there's just no time to implement it. I had also planned new weapon types with different ranges, so it wasn't just lots of blasting.

On the bright side, there are more costume previews and the Razers are finally going to look cool.

Oh, and the menus and HUDs will now be vectorized.

Here's a quick rundown on progress, that's more accurate then what you'd find in a Games Update, but a bit messier.

TEW Comic Issue 2: script done, 2 pages out of 29.

GQ2.0: Gorbash sprite done and integrated into the game.

Pageturner 2: Menu screens set up, opening cutscene started (probably going to ditch what I made, though), some music composed.

TEWP4: I rewrote a lot of the script, mostly the ending. The script's still not done yet, though.

TEW Novel: I tried to run through a bunch of plot ideas, but there aren't many stories that I'd planned through perfectly.

I'm really hoping I'll get to finish all of this stuff in time!

-- LockedOn.

TEW Issue 1 Available to Order and Other News!

The Evolving World's first issue has been available on Smackjeeves for a while, but the printed version has what the free online version does not: extra pages of exclusive TEW content!

I'm sorry that this couldn't have been released earlier, but there were a few complications getting it all set up.

Click here to order it!

Meanwhile, I've been very busy but I managed to draw a few pages of the second issue. I only have one background environment done, (this time there are three new interior locations and one exterior - with no retooling), but the others will come along shortly. Good thing I'm handing off the color to someone else this time, or this could be going a LOT slower.

I'm also currently plotting the next Pageturner, and I'm considering turning it into a visual novel, because Scratch is so glitchy when it comes to the old one.

More stuff's coming soon, but expect me to be quite busy in the coming months.

-- LockedOn.