I know, it's been nearly a year (I think over a year actually) since I made the original teaser trailer for The Amazing Quest-I've just encountered an incredible writer's block and while I've constructed this great overview for the series' plot as a whole I'm very stumped about what to do with the first episode. I've thought of searching for some other people to help form a "writing team" and I may just do that once I get around to it. I've also conceived the idea of a possible secondary series which would probably be called "Amazing Quest Shorts", which would focus on a more sketch-comedy style rather than being part of a continuous plot line.

However, this all on hold (well, it has been for quite awhile anyway, but now it's "official") while I attempt to pursue something I've been toying with for awhile-making a Machinima version of my Video Game Violence Issue-Oriented Tragicomedy titled Murder Simulator. Note that it will have very strong language and will basically be "R-Rated", whereas TAQ I plan to have in the PG - PG-13 range (reflecting the games from which its comedy is inspired). My hope is that Murder Simulator can serve as my entrance into the Machinima community and help build enough interest that I can assemble a group of people to work on this more long-term project.

More details on Murder Simulator will crop up as I start putting some work into it. One thing I can say is that I'm considering putting together a custom Doom map to use for part of the intro sequence-although the bulk of Murder Simulator will be produced in the RPG Maker 2 engine with additional effects added using Adobe Photoshop, Premiere and possibly After Effects if I can learn how to use it (I may need it since there may be a number of shots requiring some more advanced motion tracking and such). I think overall it's more "ambitious" than TAQ in the sense that it was not written with RM2 in mind-whereas TAQ will be. However, I think this is also potentially beneficial since I'll be getting a very good idea of what can be done when I marry things done inside the engine itself with digital effects, so that could help to open things up for what can be done when TAQ is finally produced.

After an exhhausting search, I finally managed to find the site that had the font I used for The Amazing Quest title: Lifecraft. It's basically the Warcraft font (not being a fan of the series I didn't quite get what it was), but in any case I find it more than perfect for the series' title.

I'm really juggling a bunch of projects and ideas right now but I've just been exposed to this series called Press Start and other viral classics like the Nostalgia Critic, and when I see successful web series...es...well, I start feeling like I can make something pretty damn cool myself-and dammit, the possibilities for The Amazing Quest are just awesome, really-I'm thinking of making a kind of "tour" to machinima.com and a handful of RPG Maker-based websites and maybe a few RPG fandom forums to try and gather some support and maybe some volunteer voice-actors and a few co-writers-or maybe just writers, I have a kind of rough outline of events and a few funny moments worked out but I'm not exactly very confidant right now in my ability to bring it all to life script-wise. I'm fairly confidant in my ability to bring this all to life with RPG Maker 2 because I know the thing inside and out (well except for the battle system-and I'm not super with the VFX stuff exactly but I think I can do a passable job).
So anyway, yeah I need lots of help so I'll probably work out a standard post with a link to the teaser and some general information on the overall concept and everything.
I'm also thinking of using RPG Maker XP for flashbacks, but I'll have to figure out how to create the interior of a burning house...

Well, Fallout 3 has come out, and I pre-ordered the collector's edition of the Games for Windows version, since I have an awesome enough laptop to run it at Max settings-the Gateway P-7811 FX:

Gateway P-7811 FX Laptop | 2.26GHz Intel® Centrino® 2 processor | 4GB DDR3 memory | 17" WUXGA TFT widescreen display with 1920 x 1200 resolution | 200GB Primary SATA hard drive (7200 rpm) | 320GB Secondary Sata hard drive (7200 rpm) | NVIDIA GeForce 9800M GTS graphics with 512MB of GDDR3 discrete video memory

The CPU is a little lacking, but it hasn't let me down so far-I might upgrade it with my next financial aid check-I wonder how much a quad-core would cost...

Anyway, yeah that's been occupying A LOT of my time. First thing I'm planning to do for the series is a behind-the-scenes of the trailer, a kind of walk-through of the process with commentary by me. Then I'll start some work on the first episode.

A lot of the plot details have changed, although since most haven't been divulged publicly yet (well I don't think any have for that matter), it doesn't really matter that much.

Still, I'll talk about it a little-just to give a glimpse into the creative process:

Initially, I had this idea that the story would start off with Virk, the main character, being assigned by the Eldanus Church (where he's staying) to escort Feste (an annoyingly clumsy, accident prone, and absent-minded guy-not necessarily stupid, but he tends not to think about things before he does them) to an "NPC Training Camp", where there would be a number of gags regarding the nature of NPCs. On the way there, heading through the Lost Forest, they'd meet Melody (hopefully by this time we'd have an actual female voice actress), and she'd insist that she tag along because she has something to do at the camp. It turns out there's something going on behind-the-scenes there (hadn't figured out quite what yet), and they have to get Feste out of it-and that's kind of where the idea ended.

I'd always thought that maybe it wasn't good to have the NPC Training Camp idea presented so early on, or even at all because it kind of "breaks the fourth wall" so to speak, even if it is presented in a funny and clever way. I think I also realised to some extent that it was a dead end of sorts. Basically, it won't be the intro, although Feste will be introduced early on-if only because he makes an appearance in the trailer and some people may wonder why he isn't in the "pilot". Also, I think the "NPC Training Camp" concept will be separated out into a side-episode, similar to Red Vs. Blue's PSAs and other shorts. Those allow for a little more freedom in terms of breaking out of the universe and storyline of the series and do gags and jokes and such that just wouldn't fit with the "rules" of the main series.
Anyway, I'm hoping to at least do the behind the scenes thing in the near future, and maybe do a little promoting because I want to really gauge people's interest in this project and so far I've only "promoted" this thing on one relatively small message board. I'm sort of waiting until I have a little more to present than just this one teaser trailer.

Watch it here!


Link to YouTube Page

Next up I'm going to try to make some kind of intro video,and maybe some special digital compositing proofs of concepts for like set extensions or other green screen-type effects. Generally speaking, however, I think I'll try to make most of the footage completely in the engine itself.

Click "Read More" for additional commentary on the creative process behind the teaser.

Welcome to the official launch of The Amazing Quest, a concept nearly five years in the making! Actually, I had the idea of making an RPG with RPG Maker called The Amazing Quest, started working on it, then things happened and I accidentally overwrote the file and after a few false starts with RPG Maker 2, I've decided to forgo making an RPG out of it and make it into a machinima series insstead.

The entire concept has changed since the beginning, but the title and comedic tone remain, it's just the extent and direction of the comedic tone that's different.

Well, anyway-The Amazing Quest will revolve around a group of would-be NPCs while the main heroes are off, well...doing heroic stuff. The characters will nonetheless find themselves in a number of cliche RPG scenarios, both Eastern and Western-and the combination of that and a group of more or less wacky characters will create the comedy.

I have recently put together a teaser trailer, but I still need to record it digitally and add a couple of things before I can upload it.

Meanwhile, there's not much to see on the website, but feel free to sign up because there will be forums and such set up in the near future.