Autumn Moon Opening Statement

[Erwin]

A Vampyre Story will, with a very high probability, be published in the Netherlands as well. Translation and dubbing of a game is almost always depending on each partnering publisher in the concerning country, so I'll have to leave you a bit in the dark about that. However, Crimson Cow is renowned to deliver high-class localizations, and AVS will be no exception.

I would too like to mention that I wouldn't be happy with a localized version in Dutch either. I've been forced to buy lots of adventure games from abroad because they were translated, or worse, dubbed. I'm not the only one either. People in the Netherlands aren't used to dubbing. All of our TV shows, movies, etcetera, are subtitled here. Even the cartoons for the kids used to be, but lately that's been changing.

Personally, I don't even turn on subtitles when watching a DVD, because I find it distracting.

--Erwin

[WilliamTiller]

Ok Current state of the game is:
Game design-
We have the games designed and now are going over a 2nd pass to clean it up and improve it and we are done with 75% of that. 5% of the in game dialogue is written. With 90% of the full motion video written.

Art
Roughly 60% of the characters are designed, but only 15% modeled in 3d.
Only 10% of the backgrounds are painted, but 100% are designed, and 40% of them have been drawn. We design the backgrounds first, and then draw them so the writer and the animators know what to write and where the animation is going. And then we do a color rough so we know about the lighting. And finally then we paint the backgrounds, which takes the most time.

Programming
I�m not a programmer so I can�t be too detailed here, but we plan to have all the basic functionality done by end of January, and most if done in few more weeks. The scripting is only started so we haven�t gotten very far at all. But once the engine is done we will be in full swing with the scripting.

Animation
Just started this, but so far it is coming along nicely. We have to get a certain number of characters built and rigged before we can start animation. FMVs have been 50% storyboarded and have scratch tracks (temporary tracks).

Sound
Well we have six piece of music done by Zachery Quarles and some FMV music by Brooks white. But that was just for our demo. Generally one doesn�t start music till all the locations and production schedule is done, or all the FMV story reels are done. So Music won�t get into full swing for a while, and that is normal.

So that is where we are at. It would be nice to be farther along, but we had to set up the company, the office space, network, software, data base, version control software, accounting service, payroll, refrigerator, coffee machines etc. at the same time, and anyone who has had to set up a company knows how long that can take. Our next game will get up to speed much faster because everything, including the game engine will be all done.

[axelkothe]

A Vampyre Story will, with a very high probability, be published in the Netherlands as well. Translation and dubbing of a game is almost always depending on each partnering publisher in the concerning country, so I'll have to leave you a bit in the dark about that. However, Crimson Cow is renowned to deliver high-class localizations, and AVS will be no exception.

I would too like to mention that I wouldn't be happy with a localized version in Dutch either. I've been forced to buy lots of adventure games from abroad because they were translated, or worse, dubbed. I'm not the only one either. People in the Netherlands aren't used to dubbing. All of our TV shows, movies, etcetera, are subtitled here. Even the cartoons for the kids used to be, but lately that's been changing.

Personally, I don't even turn on subtitles when watching a DVD, because I find it distracting.

--Erwin

You guys are lucky. Here in germany everything is dubbed, which is bad since I almost always prefer the original. On the other hand it broadens the audience, since there are a lot of people that don't understand englisch well enough to play a game

[WilliamTiller]

Hi Everybody,
I�m Bill Tiller the CEO and Creative Director at Autumn Moon. If you don�t know anything about us, let me just quickly say we are a new game developer that specializes in making Lucas Arts style graphic Adventure games. The first game that we are making, A Vampyre Story, is with the German publisher Crimson Cow, a very good company to work for. They have been very helpful and we re so happy to have made our deal with them. A Vampyre Story is about Mona de Lafitte, a young up and coming opera star who is kidnapped by a vampire, turned into one, and held captive in a haunted castle far from home, in mountainous Draxsylvania. Finally her captor is destroyed (or not) and she is free to return to Paris. But being a vampire is tougher than one might think. The game follows Mona and her companion, a wise acre bat named Froderick, as the explore Draxsylvania in order to find away back to Paris. The art style is similar to the one I developed with Larry Ahern on Curse of Monkey Island, and the puzzles and humor are very similar to many Lucas Arts graphics adventure games, especial the Monkey Island series. We have set no specific date on release yet, but we will finalize the release date as soon as we can be reasonably confident we can make it. And right now we plan to make a full game, not episodic, for the PC. Other platforms are being considered but no final decision has been made on which other ones yet.
So I am here and ready to answer any question you have about our game, our company and about any other games we have worked on in the past.

Bill Eaken and Amy Tiller are here too if you have any questions for them. Bill Eaken is painting backgrounds along with me for the game. And Amy is the Producer and Office manager for the game and the company.

Thanks you,
Bill Tiller

[Georg_CrimsonCow]

Hi everybody,

also a quick "hello" from Crimson Cow. I'm Georg Hach, Product Manager for Crimson Cow. Kai Fiebig, our Marketing Director, and myself will be available for publishing relateded questions regarding A Vampyre Story. For more information about us and questions, please see our sub-board on the ADOC 06 on wednesday.

Have fun,
Georg

[WilliamTiller]

I forgot to mention that Bill Eaken has worked on a lot of games including Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis., The Dig, The Secret of Monkey Island, The Curse of Monkey Island, Indiana Jones and the Infernal Machine, Spy Hunter: No Where Run.

Amy worked in Technical Support and then was a production coordinator on Star Wars: Star Fighter, and Star Wars: Jedi Power Battles.

[PolloDiablo]

It's great to finally get the chance to ask questions directly.

Will Crimson Cow publish in the Netherlands also, or co-operate with a Dutch publisher?
Also, will the game be dubbed or translated in any way for the respective European countries? (please don't, many people do NOT appreciate this. Or at the very least, include an option to play in English if one prefers).

[Georg_CrimsonCow]

A Vampyre Story will, with a very high probability, be published in the Netherlands as well. Translation and dubbing of a game is almost always depending on each partnering publisher in the concerning country, so I'll have to leave you a bit in the dark about that. However, Crimson Cow is renowned to deliver high-class localizations, and AVS will be no exception.

[a_side]

Hello everybody,

What is the state of development of AVS ?

Thx !

[a_side]

Ok Current state of the game is:
Game design-
We have the games designed and now are going over a 2nd pass to clean it up and improve it and we are done with 75% of that. 5% of the in game dialogue is written. With 90% of the full motion video written.

Art
Roughly 60% of the characters are designed, but only 15% modeled in 3d.
Only 10% of the backgrounds are painted, but 100% are designed, and 40% of them have been drawn. We design the backgrounds first, and then draw them so the writer and the animators know what to write and where the animation is going. And then we do a color rough so we know about the lighting. And finally then we paint the backgrounds, which takes the most time.

Programming
I�m not a programmer so I can�t be too detailed here, but we plan to have all the basic functionality done by end of January, and most if done in few more weeks. The scripting is only started so we haven�t gotten very far at all. But once the engine is done we will be in full swing with the scripting.

Animation
Just started this, but so far it is coming along nicely. We have to get a certain number of characters built and rigged before we can start animation. FMVs have been 50% storyboarded and have scratch tracks (temporary tracks).

Sound
Well we have six piece of music done by Zachery Quarles and some FMV music by Brooks white. But that was just for our demo. Generally one doesn�t start music till all the locations and production schedule is done, or all the FMV story reels are done. So Music won�t get into full swing for a while, and that is normal.

So that is where we are at. It would be nice to be farther along, but we had to set up the company, the office space, network, software, data base, version control software, accounting service, payroll, refrigerator, coffee machines etc. at the same time, and anyone who has had to set up a company knows how long that can take. Our next game will get up to speed much faster because everything, including the game engine will be all done.

Thx for this detailed reply !