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Author Topic: Aquaria-based story  (Read 43548 times)

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Offline WiZaRDuSS

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Re: Aquaria-based story
« Reply #30 on: May 28, 2010, 09:31:45 am »
I don't have the option to host it myself though :)

Offline Lady-Succubus

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Re: Aquaria-based story
« Reply #31 on: May 28, 2010, 09:38:59 am »
Aww. I'll keep my eyes peeled. :(
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Offline WiZaRDuSS

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Re: Aquaria-based story
« Reply #32 on: May 30, 2010, 12:20:15 am »
I decided to keep it last post first, apart from one informational post. Since most people will probably be following the story as it grows, it makes more sense to keep the updated on top.
Anyway, I wrote a new part to my story, which you can read either here or on my blog (link is in my signature), whichever suits you best. :)

Hope you guys like it :)

Crawling through the narrow path she’d found in the wall she became a bit frightened. Not being used to small spaces, it felt like the darkness crept up through her spine, making her shiver. After a while, going around another corner, she saw a small light in the distance, relieved she crept forward. The closer she got, the more she felt at ease, as if the light summoned her out of the narrow cave. But, even though she got closer, it was as if the light didn’t grow bigger, as it should have done when she’d get closer to the end of these paths. Realizing this she paused, thinking what she should do now, when the light grew smaller and smaller. She decided to figure out what caused this. As fast as she could manage she tried to get closer to the light. Struggling to get closer, she noticed the light was.. waving from left to right as it moved forward.
By the time she almost got close enough to see what the light was coming from, it sped up, making sure there was no way to come closer, but not too fast to fall behind more as she was now. Then the caverns got a little wider, she was able to stand up. Having this much room, she could swim, and within a short time, she caught up with what appeared to be the tail of a fish, its face hidden in the shadows behind its side fins. She grabbed the tail of the fish, trying to throw some light on the hidden face. Without warning, the creature threw its face around; revealing what had better should’ve stayed a mystery. A gaping mouth with long razor sharp teeth was glaring at her. Terror made her body freeze on the spot. Slowly the creature swam towards her, opening his mouth further with every thrust of his tail.
This is it. I never thought this journey would be over so soon, let alone in the horrible way it’ll end. I never even had a chance to figure out where I came from. Eww, what’s that between his teeth! Wait, why am I bothered about something like that now? It must be that I’m growing insane in my final moments, I can’t stand it that I can’t even think straight.
Slowly the teeth were moving around her. She was looking straight down the throat she’d end up in, being devoured by this awful being. Then she reached the end, and touched the roof of the mouth, it was as if the creature froze on the spot. The little thing she saw stuck between his teeth before now started to glow. And once again she felt this familiarity, this warm and ensuring feeling, it made her able to move again. As fast as she could she swum between the teeth of the creature. Upon exiting she passed the creatures eyes, and when she came into its view, for some reason, the eyes widened, as if he was afraid. Then it turned around and swum away, once again leaving her in darkness.
After catching a breath to get a bit of peace in her body after the recent events, she continued wandering through the maze-like caverns. After, what seemed days, she finally reached another light, this one growing bigger as she came closer. Upon reaching the end she had to close her eyes, for the light was blinding after all these days in the dark caverns. When she finally got used to the light and opened her eyes, her mind was blown away.

PS. Next chapter I'm planning on releasing the name of the main character, which right now is the working title of my story :) and might end up being the final title, unless I have a better idea, or people give me a good idea  ^-^
« Last Edit: May 30, 2010, 01:07:28 am by WiZaRDuSS »

Offline Echolocating

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Re: Aquaria-based story
« Reply #33 on: May 31, 2010, 10:12:00 pm »
You have really good imagination. Instead of just describing the world as strange and alien, you're actually showing us in the story how different and unpredictable it really is.  :)

Offline WiZaRDuSS

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Re: Aquaria-based story
« Reply #34 on: May 31, 2010, 11:57:22 pm »
My main idea is to create a world in the story and make it familiar to the readers, and to make the story itself (though exaggerated) be unpredictable like most things in life are. That way creating a world people are a bit familiar to, which will draw them more into the story :)

Offline WiZaRDuSS

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Re: Aquaria-based story
« Reply #35 on: June 02, 2010, 07:38:45 pm »
I'm looking for a way to create some kind of cover for the book, but I want it to be like it's been painted, similar to the game over screen of Aquaria. Does anyone know what program(and what settings?) are a good start for it?

Offline Echolocating

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Re: Aquaria-based story
« Reply #36 on: June 02, 2010, 08:01:48 pm »
I just posted about a similar thing in another thread. Here's that reply...
I've found that working at twice the size you want your final graphic to be works pretty good to hide any rough areas, but the hardest thing for me to discover was what kind of brush to use. I used to think that a digital brush was either hard edged or soft (feathered) with opacity settings for blending, but MyPaint's "wet brushes" are the way to go for that painted look. Use a heavy flat brush to lay down the base color and then add tones for shading with a wet brush and keep the blending of colors minimal to keep a painted look. Anyway, that's how I managed to shake the "airbrushed" look out of my digital art.

...so MyPaint and GIMP with a graphics tablet is the way to go, in my opinion.

There are filters in GIMP and Photoshop you can use to achieve a painted look, but I've never seen one that doesn't look like a cheap filter effect.

Offline WiZaRDuSS

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Re: Aquaria-based story
« Reply #37 on: June 02, 2010, 08:38:29 pm »
Ah ok, I'll try that. Never worked with either GIMP or MyPaint yet so I'd have to get used to it. Mostly used to illustrator/flash to make digital drawings. But since I've heard so much about MyPaint I think I'll try that, nice chance to get the bamboo tablet out from under his layer of dust, it's not really useful in either of my usual programs.
Thanks :)

EDIT: Aww, poo, apparently my tablet isn't supported by mypaint.. at least the mouse works there, while the tablet doesn't.. and it works in different programs...
Just when MyPaint looked so interesting...

EDIT: even weirder, MyPaint reacts to normal hand gestures on my tablet, but not to pen gestures? (I'm using Wacom Bamboo Pen & Touch, with the latest firmware..)
« Last Edit: June 02, 2010, 09:18:46 pm by WiZaRDuSS »

Offline Lady-Succubus

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Re: Aquaria-based story
« Reply #38 on: June 02, 2010, 09:37:52 pm »
I wouldn't try to work on the cover until you finish the book if I were you. You might find something inspirational for a cover later on. :3
Bored little neko, pouncing along, scattering posts everywhere. =^.^=

Offline WiZaRDuSS

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Re: Aquaria-based story
« Reply #39 on: June 02, 2010, 09:39:52 pm »
Still I'd like to have some kind of concept idea for now... slight chance I'll be keeping it in the end.. But first I'd have to get my tablet properly working with MyPaint..

Offline Echolocating

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Re: Aquaria-based story
« Reply #40 on: June 02, 2010, 10:55:15 pm »
EDIT: even weirder, MyPaint reacts to normal hand gestures on my tablet, but not to pen gestures? (I'm using Wacom Bamboo Pen & Touch, with the latest firmware..)
I use a regular Bamboo tablet (pen only) without any issues and I know other forum members use MyPaint with their tablets just fine. I wonder if MyPaint just isn't set up to recognize two types of input from one graphics device (defaulting to touch input only). Can you somehow disable the touch function from your tablet in the Bamboo configuration utility? Another thing to try might be just uninstalling the Bamboo software and letting Windows recognize the device with standard default drivers and see where that gets you. Unfortunately, I don't think MyPaint has any official support forums, but maybe I just couldn't find them. I assume you have the latest 0.8.2 version of MyPaint. There must be a way to get it working though, graphics tablets have been standard for a while now. :-\

Offline WiZaRDuSS

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Re: Aquaria-based story
« Reply #41 on: June 02, 2010, 10:58:49 pm »
There are some kind of forums, and I've searched through them, someone had the same problem, and installed it on a secondary hard drive, which fixed the problem. I tried the same, and it works. Don't ask me how but as long as it works I don't care :)

Offline WiZaRDuSS

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Re: Aquaria-based story
« Reply #42 on: June 04, 2010, 12:21:30 am »
A new part of my story is currently on my blog. I won't post it here though, because it's simply too long, and it's not the easiest way to read, on these forums :)
Here it is for anyone who is interested :)

PS. From now on I will also update my signature to hold the date my story was last continued.

As always, any thoughts on it are welcome, I write mainly for the readers, not for myself(not that much anyway).

I hope you guys like it :)

Offline WiZaRDuSS

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Re: Aquaria-based story
« Reply #43 on: June 22, 2010, 12:49:22 am »
Took a while, but there is a new chapter out :)

That is, if anyone is still interested, if not, I won't bother you guys with it anymore.

Here it is, the new chapter: Bleeding royalty

Let me know what you think of the story so far, and if anyone is still interested..

Offline Zoko

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Re: Aquaria-based story
« Reply #44 on: June 22, 2010, 06:48:35 am »
Quote
Blood dripped down, crawling towards the jewel. ... she got back up her feet ... and ran back to the entrance.

Gotta remember that physics work differently underwater ;)
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