New Cosmo Game Idea

[T-Squared]

I had an idea for a new Cosmo game that might have been a gem back in the day. Part of this idea is shown in my current avatar.

Beginning of the story so far:

Cosmo’s Cosmic Adventure 2: The Humanizer

A little bright red spaceship speeds through the starry expanse, carrying it’s sole passenger, Cosmo!

It’s been 3 years since that fateful day that Cosmo’s parents had crash-landed on Forbidden Planet. Cosmo is now a little bit older (approx. 8 earth years old), and knows a little bit better, but he still often gets into a mess or two…

Our story begins when Cosmo decided to visit Earth again, remembering the time he had at Disney World, but this time, he wanted to (ideas below)

*visit the NASA Space Centers in America

He was about to make an orbit around Earth to enter the atmosphere, but then his tiny ship started to waver, the controls went offline, and then the ship slowly started picking up speed. He was being pulled right toward Earth!

Cosmo quickly put the energy heat shields on, and he was all right, until the ship really sped up. The energy shields went offline, and the metal heat shield automatically raised into place, leaving Cosmo in the dark with his tiny little ship out of control. When the ship finally crashed into something metal, he was knocked out with a bump on his head. When he came to, he was inside a large glass tube, looking at a laughing scientist who was fiddling with a control panel. Cosmo asked, “What are you doing?”, ”Let me out!”, and he tried to bang on the glass, but his rubber-suction-cup-like hands were not hard enough. The scientist flipped a switch, and gas filled Cosmo’s chamber, and when the gas cleared, out stepped…


Cosmo!

He looked down at his suction-hands, but they were gone and replaced with regular hands!
His skin also wasn’t the green color with red spots that he had been used to!

HE WAS A HUMAN!

The scientist turned to him, and said menacingly, “Welcome to Earth, little guy…” Cosmo was scared, but he looked around, immediately noticed an exit door, and bolted. The scientist ran after him, but Cosmo slammed the door in his face, knocking him out. When he got outside, he could hear other transformed kids in the laboratory, but he had to find his way back to his tiny red ship. Calling into the lab, he said “I’ll get you guys out later!”
Cosmo needs to change himself and the other alien kids back into their original forms before they become permanent residents of Earth!''





So, the story takes place over three episodes, as did the original game.

Most of the Graphics work will hopefully be done with Wombat Game Tools.

Features that will hopefully be in the game:

*All new Earth levels
*Cosmo's Digitized voice (through the PC speaker. Believe me, it can be done!)
*Cosmo's Human Form (Later in the game, he finds [clean] toilet plungers that he uses to climb.
*and more to come!

I want to garner some support for this idea, and the good thing is I'm not doing this for profit.

[006 3/4]

*thumbs up*

[T-Squared]

Well, see, it'll be a major mod, keeping the engine, but hopefully some of these program variables can be changed or added:

*Addition of new music
*Sound
*Actions of some "actors" (The moving enemies).
*Animated cutscenes*

[T-Squared]

OK, Here is Cosmo's human walk cycle.

[Dopefish7590]

nice cca was a good game that i enjoied

[Shadow Master]

That sprite looks like he's dancing or something.
BTW, I didn't know Wombat had support for importing CCA graphics yet. I thought it was yet another "I'll do it later" feature.

I wonder if this is another "I have an idea, it's wonderful but it'll take some years; oh, I give up" history.

[T-Squared]

Well, I hope to get a lot of support on this, cause I don't want to have to give on it.

Anyway, that's his walk cycle, edited from exported player.mni tiles.

I wanted to have Cosmo be human in the game, but not wearing unrecognizable clothing. The idea of the Humanizer Machine in the game is that it turns alien kids into human kids, but it also keeps some of their attributes, both in body form (like Cosmo's overbite [it's still there], and hair) and clothing form. (The red-polka-dotted green shirt and pants)

It also adds some other attributes. (The blue shoes on Human Cosmo. [That was a half-excuse to add more color than just red and green, and also not have Cosmo go around bare-foot.])

Right now, I'm working on some art for the story, but the thing is, I can't import the animated sprites and some static art cause Wombat doesn't have the capabilities yet.

[szevvy]

Originally Posted by Shadow Master

That sprite looks like he's dancing or something.
BTW, I didn't know Wombat had support for importing CCA graphics yet. I thought it was yet another "I'll do it later" feature.

Heh, these days it's a "oh god, how will I do this?" feature. However, keep working away - I've got very little spare time on my hands, but if there's a lot of nice artwork and if I can see that you making progress and it's not just another vaporware project... If that happens, I might be able to knock up something ugly and quick that'd get your art into the game.

So, don't let the lack of an importer stop you. You'd better make some really nice stuff though

[Shadow Master]

Originally Posted by T-Squared

Anyway, that's his walk cycle, edited from exported player.mni tiles.

My bad, I now remember. It seems that it was just not designed for high frame-rate games (Cosmo is a low frame-rate game).

-- disregard text formerly here; just read about the suction hands replacement --

[szevvy]

edit: Uh, I saw CCA and read CGA. Nevermind.

[Dopefish7590]

CCA = Cosmos Cosmic Adventure
CGA = Color Graphics Adapter


that could confuse some people

[T-Squared]

*In smart-alecky confident voice*

Oh-ho-ho-ho! You want good artwork? Here's some right here!

*voice ends here*

I finished the second picture yesterday.

The thing is, I need someone who can draw Cosmo from a more difficult angle.

The color bar underneath is the color scale I used to calibrate the exporter on my drawing program.

Edit: resized it so other people could see it

Oh, and cross-seat-belts rule! (Cosmo's wearing one! )

[Dopefish7590]

nice

[T-Squared]

Oh, I almost forgot...

I need these people with expertise:

*Someone who can make good music
|-Transfer music to .mni format
*Someone who can create .snd format sounds
|- Transfer sounds to .mni format
*Someone who can do good fullscreen art
*Someone who is good at level design
*Someone who is good at changing a program and it's variables.
*(EDIT: ) Oh, And someone who can do a voice similar to Hamtaro's (yes, the cartoon version)

[Shadow Master]

Originally Posted by T-Squared

|-Transfer music to .mni format

The music files used in cosmo are contained in the volume file as separate files named M*.mni. Actually they're in Id Software's IMF music format. It's not that difficult to convert MIDI songs to IMF (and rename the file to msomething.mni). Wolfenstein modding tools include a proper MIDI to IMF converter, but I don't remember the URL. Googleing should work anyway. :P

In other words, you just have to worry about someone writing the MIDI tracks. mni/IMF conversion should be piece of cake.

[T-Squared]

OK, I finished some of Cosmo's speech bubbles. (Both death and exclamation bubbles)

Original Bubble-----Replaced with
OUCH!---------------OW!
WHOA! --------------COOL!
UMPH! ---------------HEY!
YIKES!------------- AHHH... *CRASH*
OH NO!-------------- TOO FAR! (/w extra graphics)
YEOW!------------- (Censored Curse Symbols) (In "color" too! )

These identifiable items will be replaced:

The Power Module with Cola Can (PensaCola Brand, to be exact! )
The Invincibility Cube with a Power Globe

More to Come!

[T-Squared]

Ok, Here's a screenshot of some of the things I edited in-game. The BG image is an image that I found on the internet and edited slightly.

Fortunately, I found a way to match the locations of the score, health, bomb and star indicators to the custom status bar. I just used the grey boxes left in the old status bar to build the new status bar around it.

I probably shouldn't have posted the story as you guys see in my first post above, it's a rough draft that needs to be refined, although I have the second story in place now, but it still needs tuning, and as soon as I post the rough draft, I'll need some help tuning it, and some help to make the third story.

[franpa]

mm, glad your doing this, keep up the good work, the status bar is somewhat hard to read and is rather cluttered, try not slanting the text in it and making it a lot more simple and basic in design and appearance.

remove the icons next to the text as it makes it look vastly more armature.

[Shadow Master]

The text might look a little better with some shadow behind it, actually.

[T-Squared]

Heh...

What I really need to do is brighten the text a little bit, and I probably shoud put those icons in a box to give the appearance of an image on a screen.

[T-Squared]

Ending for Episode 1:

Cosmo travels all the way to New York City to the ETRAC Hangar. [ETRAC is the name of the place where Cosmo was taken to in Roswell, New Mexico. The hangar in New York City was where his red ship was taken.] But is transported somewhere before he can get to his ship.

Story for Episode 2:

When we last left our humanized galactic traveler, Cosmo, he had found his spaceship at the ETRAC (Extra-Terrestrial Research Association Center) Hangar in New York City, but a transporter beam plucked him from the hangar and took him to an unknown location…

…Or should we say, a known location?

Cosmo materialized on a transporter pad back at ETRAC in Roswell, seeing the same scientist when he was in the glass tube at the controls, only this time, he was a lot less joyful than before.

“You little… You won’t get away this time!”, the scientist said, and he tried to tackle Cosmo, but Cosmo threw one of his knockout capsules on the ground, smoke filled the room and the scientist was out in a flash. Cosmo ran to the containment cells for the alien kids, and said, “I’ll get you out, but I need to find the switch to open the doors!” A girl in a pink skirt and a bow pointed to a large red button on the wall and said, “Over there!” Cosmo slammed the button down, a buzzer sounded, and all the cell doors opened, freeing the humanized kids.


Quite a few kids went to the Humanizer, and changed themselves back to their original forms, however, Cosmo and many other humanized kids tied up the evil scientist (name not created at this point) and ran to the transporter to check on their ships back at the ETRAC hangar. When he got there, he tried to start his ship, but the fuel gauge was showing empty. He took a look in the fuel chamber, and his ship’s power crystals were gone!

Many of the other kids’ ship fuel chambers were empty as well!
The kids got together and put together a plan to get the fuel back from Roswell, and eventually decided on Cosmo to go in, because of his small size and his Knockout Pill pack.

Cosmo needs to get the fuel back, or he and the other humanized alien kids will never get home!

OK, That's the rough draft of the story of episode two. In the end, cosmo gets the power sources back.

But for right now, I can't think of a story to create a storyline twist for the third/last episode.

As for the game art, I need some ideas for enemies and items.

I already have these ideas for items within the game:
*Invincibility Globe

Food:
*Pensacola Brand Cola (Health Item)
*Hot Dog with Mustard and Ketchup
*Pizza
*Twin Cherries
*Jello Jiggler Cube

Toys (replacing jewels and "valuable" items):
*Red Bouncy ball

The Hint Globes will be replaced with Information kiosks/Computer Terminals.

[T-Squared]

Ok, Here's the raw form of the story images so far for episode 1.

Remember this, I want to make this game a reality, but I can't do all of this work by myself. I need various people who can do music, sounds, some art, etc. and people who can program some items into the game.

[T-Squared]

Forbidden Planet's starting to look more like Earth, eh?

[T-Squared]

I have a question about a remix of one of the music pieces that was in the game.

Did Bobby Prince remix the song in the first level of the first episode in MIDI, or was it a fan-rendition?

Edit: Never mind, I found out already. It was a fan rendition.

I need major support on this, cause my morale on doing this project is really going down.

Current working positions:
* Graphics supervisor and management (creates graphics and makes sure they fit well into the game and the story)-Jon Gonzalez (me, a.k.a. T-Squared)
* Sound Management-(This person is to make sure to create different sound effects, and also to make sure that Cosmo's voice is intelligible)- To be determined
* Music Designer- (is the composer. Also makes sure that the music imported into the packaged files doesn't lose any information while it's played in-game, as well as making sure it has an original flair to it.)-To be determined
*Level Design- (What do you think?)- To be determined
*Voice actor for Cosmo (I need someone who can do a voice that's similar to Hamtaro)-Needs to be determined.

[franpa]

hmm, sorry buddy, i cant help you with any of that because my voice sux and i dunno about music/graphics/sounds...

[DavoX]

Hey very nice!

Hey, sign me in for the music composition and some additional programming, if needed. Check out your mail.

[Shadow Master]

Originally Posted by T-Squared

* Music Designer- (is the composer. Also makes sure that the music imported into the packaged files doesn't lose any information while it's played in-game, as well as making sure it has an original flair to it.)-To be determined
*Level Design- (What do you think?)- To be determined

I certainly suck when it comes to artwork authoring, in form of music, video or pictures. However, I could make sure that the music is converted correctly, if you pass me MIDI files to convert them to Cosmo's format (which is IMF/WLF, same of Commander Keen and Wolfenstein, as m*.nmi named files).

Level design... I have to think about that. First, I need proper tools, second, I don't have much spare time, so I'm surely can't work every day on level design; once or twice a week, perhaps.

I could also help with small graphics touch-ups, if I consider it's necessary to do it. I have some experience in working with EGA color palletes.

[T-Squared]

Well, I have a converter, but the music won't play at the speed I want it to. Also, it plays erratically, speeding up at times, then back to normal.

[T-Squared]

Ok, I may be graphics supervisor, but I had an idea for a song that might be used in the bonus stage for Episode 1. It's in MIDI format, and I would put up the IMF file, but the converter I use doesn't work correctly.

I know some of the notes are slightly off-beat, but we're all human.

[T-Squared]

Just an update to tell you all that the project is not dead, just moving very very slowly...

*More info to come, as the reply feature is having trouble with some of my posts*

Edit:
Ok, I finally got a post in.

I tried to post earlier, but I had a thought about the project. Maybe the project isn't getting much support because I'm getting a full head of steam and trying to do everything at once.

I'll work on the graphics, then worry about the music, sound and other attributes later.

Oh, and about that music piece I wanted to post last time? I couldn't post it, because I had the same problems with the uploading of the zip file as I did with normal reply posting.

[franpa]

keep up the good work :-D its bound to provide some good gameplay when your done.

[T-Squared]

Still chomping at the bit!

I've started to modify more of Cosmo's Sprites but I need youse guys opinion on how dey look. (Yes, it's a Bronx accent.)

The sprite where Cosmo is looking right and putting down a bomb (crouching) looks a little weird in the eye. Some of the others might look wierd, but I wanted to keep that little shininess he has in his eye.

About the death sprites... I want to have something where he's being teleported, but I don't know how to show it. I prefer to not have him be an angel.

I know I'm going a little bit forward by asking this, but does anyone know where I can find "*.snd" sound editors?

[Frenkel]

Originally Posted by T-Squared

I know I'm going a little bit forward by asking this, but does anyone know where I can find "*.snd" sound editors?

Cosmo's Cosmic Adventure uses the same file format for the PC sound effects as Commander Keen 1 and for Commander Keen 1 there's a sound editor: KEENfx.

[T-Squared]

Nice! It works fine, although it caught a snag on only one sound I tried.

I don't know if It'll be possible to reproduce speech using it. Would it?

[T-Squared]

Still going! My first loading screen was too crappy (around the time I was first working with the 16-color palette in June. It was a badly-colored CG globe with the words "One Moment" in front of it.), so I decided to do something related to the goal of the first episode.

You actually get to see what Cosmo sees when he's looking down at his spaceship control panels! (Well, almost.)

Honestly, the reason why I posted this and *some* of my other progress pictures was to show off my talent with art, but also a sort of progress promo thing.

Points of interest:

*An Homage to Star Trek: TNG with the lights under the green data screen.

*Those two blue rectangles with the big white circles on them on both sides of the screen are what Cosmo uses to steer his spaceship.

...What? How do you think Cosmo will steer his spaceship if he has suction cup hands?

*The object at the bottom of the image is the buckle for his cross-seatbelt.
Make sure you buckle up, cause you never know when you'll hit a comet! *hint hint 1992*

[tpz]

What you have done so far looks nice. Are you going to build custom levels too?

[T-Squared]

Yes. the whole game will be changed, except for the main character.

[Dopefish7590]

sounds cool

[szevvy]

*remembers - I have an importer to write!

Sorry, I forgot about this. Work has managed to temporarily destroy the fact that I enjoy coding, I'm a bit over the games industry right now

I'll get onto making this tool asap.