August 2005
Bill Tiller here with an AVS update. After a very good E3 we have been spending most of our time conducting business and haven’t had a chance to update our website until now.

We still don’t have a deal - yet, but the prospects are looking good and we will let you know right here the instant we have signed with a publisher. I can’t give any details yet due to the standard NDAs we have to sign, but I am feeling positive that we will have a deal signed very soon. Stay tuned.

In the meantime we are testing our new engine, creating our production schedules and budgets, and have finished our first pass at the 3D Mona model, done by the VERY talented Charles Berrnaert. Head on over to the Gallery section and take a look. Hope you like it.

Also there is a ‘color script’ for our Paris chapters of AVS in the gallery as well. A ‘color script’ is a rough painting that helps me work out the colors and lighting I want to help set the mood for a location or a particular background. Mona has just fed so she can withstand minute doses of sunlight, as long as she is mostly covered, it is cloudy out, she wears a veil and the sun is setting. The SPF 1000 suntan lotion helps too (SPF 100 is the name of a Goth band, so this must be a very old vampire joke). Other than that she can stay in the sun as long as she likes. The drawing of Mona was inspired by one of my favorite illustrators (you guessed it!), Edward Gorey. Heck, the whole game is inspired by the late great Edward Gorey. If you don’t know who is I strongly suggest you order his books on Amazon.com or Google his many fan pages. His writing and art are not to be missed by anyone with a dark sense of humor and a love for images of Edwardian aristocrats doing very bad things.

I have a few more background pieces I will add in a few weeks. As soon as I figure out why my alpha channels have a white outline around them I will post an AVI and QuickTime movie of our 3D set test, which looks pretty cool otherwise.

That’s it for this week kids. So until next time, adios!