Hey everyone, and welcome to a shameless self-plugging thread about this game we’re making called Gibbous.

Before any actual plugging, I wanna say I'm aware my first post on this forum is a self-ad, and appropriately ashamed about it. However, I promise this ain't no hit and run, as the song goes.

Title picture

Gibbous is a classic 2d point and click adventure, and yes it’s a Lucas Arts-like game. It also is, as the subtitle so unsubtle-y gives it away, a loving spoof of everything Lovecraftian, and then some.

The Story

You get to play as two characters (well, technically three):

Don R. Ketype

Don R. Ketype

Grizzled, jaded private detective Ketype is hired by mysterious patrons to seek out the dreaded Necronomicon, and that’s how the game starts out. How bad could things go, really? After all, it aint nothin’ but a book of some sorts… Don will cater to your noir needs, including describing how the rain pattered down on the concrete like a neurotic jazz band percussionist, sometimes without anyone around to appreciate his poetic similes.

Buzz Kerwan

Buzz Kerwan

Buzz is no more than a mild mannered cust... erm, librarian putting in hours at the Miskatonic University Library to pay for his belated tuition (he’s in his 30s, but that’s cool, man, y’know?). He accidentally stumbles upon the Necronomicon, and also accidentally turns his cat, Kitteh, into a…

Kitteh

Kitteh

...well, a grouch, really. Kitteh is REALLY pissed off at Buzz inadvertently yanking her from her serene, illuminated state - everyone knows cats are buddhists. She doesn’t want to worry about stuff like death cults seeking out the very object that personified her; all she wants is to go back to a worry-free life of sleep and kitty treats. Thus, Buzz and Kitteh set out to find someone, anyone who can help reverse Kitteh’s transformation.

Search

Ok, ok, what about Cthulhu?

This story doesn’t take place, as you’d probably expect, in Lovecraft’s 1920s. It’s a tale of an alternative present where death cults are popping out everywhere, all in competition to find the Necronomicon and awaken Cthulhu, a lot of them just to prove that THEY’re the real cultists, and the rest are just a bunch of posers.

About the game...

As I mentioned before, we’re going for that old school point and clicky goodness. All characters are fully animated, mostly frame by frame, but also combined with some cutout animation; all backgrounds are handpainted (which takes up a lot of time, but that’s the way to go as far as we’re concerned).

The game will feature all known traits of the genre, and one I’m particularly determined to enforce: almost every possible combination of two items, whether in inventory or in the game world, will result in anywhere from one to five unique responses, so no more doing different actions just to have the same grating line thrown back at you. Of course, that takes a hell of a lot of writing, and makes voice acting a harder goal to reach, but, again, it’s something we really don’t want to compromise on.

We’re developing the game in Unity.

The influences!

Gibbous is a love letter to HP Lovecraft, Tim Schafer, Alfred Hitchcock, Steve Purcell,Ron Gilbert, Karl Pilkington and some other folks. Not that we're big on sending love letters to dead people.

The team!

The team consists of three people: myself as a writer, character & background artist, secondary animator, game designer and music composer; a main animator who also does sfx and additional music, and a programmer. We're based in Tirgu Mures, Transylvania, Romania.

Coming soon!

Gibbous is expected to have a fully functional vertical slice demo some time this coming spring, and we definitely want to Kickstart the project, since you can probably tell it will take some finances to get a game like this going smoothly.

So that’s that, looking forward to your feedback and I’ll be happy to answer any and all of your questions, as long as they’re not about programming stuff or winning lottery numbers.

Mr. Underhill.

Thanks for the info. You can contact our PR Liaison - browneyetigre (see link at bottom of page) for further info.

I definitely will, thanks for the headsup!

to GameBoomers Mr_Underhill! Looks like fun!

Ana

to GameBoomers, and thanks for the info about your game.

Thanks everyone, good to feel welcomed (or is it welcome? huh).

I'll be updating this thread with new stuff whenever we churn out some, so keep an eye out.

Hey guys, happy 2015!

I'm back with two little updates on our development. First of all, the project's name has been changed to Gibbous. HPL fans will appreciate it, the others will probably shrug it off and move on with their lives :] Chances are it's the final game title, buuut you neeeever know.

Also wanted to share another gif with you - this one illustrates the unique animations that the characters will be doing throughout the game: Kitteh's fetching something for you, so that means you've successfully battled your way through a dialogue puzzle... or that you're now forever in debt to an antisocial feline with a short temper and a very good memory.

Animation

(Actual fetched item not pictured for non-spoilery purposes).

So that's about that, feel free to let me know what you guys thinks! Cheers.

Mr_Underhill, your game looks very nice and interesting!
Although I wonder how are you going to unite that pretty and cartoonish Lucasartsian look with Lovecraftian themes (which are usually gloomy and scary)

Do you have a site of the game yet with more info and screens?

Hey Iuri. Well, that's kinda the point of the game - it isn't really a horror game, it's more of a spoof, so that's where the cartoony graphics come into play. That's not to say we won't treat the Lovecraft stuff with utmost respect. I'm a big fan of, for example, film directors taking source material and really making it their own - imagine a Lovecraft movie made by Mel Brooks (Not that I'm comparing myself to Mel Brooks). If you think about Maniac Mansion, for example, and you take away the comedic parts, it's really a slasher movie, what with teenagers getting bumped off all over the place . So I guess we'll be walking a fine line. Well, anyways, you'll get a better feel of what I'm ranting about late this spring when we release the demo.

The website is being worked on, we couldn't really work on it since we hadn't settled on the game title until a very short while ago. I'll be updating this thread with info soon.

You know what the peons in Warcraft 2 say, work work work! Here's a rough animation gif of a character you'll be meeting in the demo.

Animation gif of character

Quick question, I noticed all previous images have been changed to links, am I in the wrong for putting gifs up directly? If yes, I apologize. It just has more impact to see the image directly.

Thanks for showing us the character.

For the sake of forum and speed load, we tone down the size of pictures on the pages.
Thanks for understanding.

Alright, I'll be linking them from now on Sorry again

I like her look Mr_Underhill!

Hi all! Here's a sped up animation process video of an angel that'll be making a short in-game appearance (she pops up whenever you make an - ethically - good decision). Hope you enjoy it!

It's always amazing to me how much work there is to making a game! Thanks for sharing Mr_Underhill!

Hey everyone! I just wanted to share some quick links in case you are interested in our game, Gibbous - A Cthulhu Adventure.
That way, I can stick to only posting here for major stuff.

So, without further ado:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/GibbousGame
Tumblr development blog: http://gibbousgame.tumblr.com/
IndieDB page: http://www.indiedb.com/games/gibbous-a-cthulhu-adventure

Thanks for your interest, and I'll be back to post when major developments arise!

Yours truly,

Underhill

Thanks, Mr_Underhill!