Conspiracy!

Conspiracy! Needs You - A Guest Post from Our Lead Artist

2009-04-10T23:20:00.000-07:00

Following up on his inspirational post, Mirkov Sasa is reaching out to all artists, gamers and conspiracy theorists for help designing the art for our game:

"OK, if you have read my previous post, then you know the tools that have been used to create the logos and template design for the game. Now that those are completed we are moving into the next phase: THE ART PHASE! And this phase of making the game could really use your help.

First, it would take me a long time to come up with all the art by myself. Second, this is a community game and as such I would like to keep it in the community's hands. Third, I believe that there are many good artists and people with great ideas considering art for cards.

So how can you contribute? Well first let me explain what kind of art I am hoping to have on the cards. If you know what digital matting is then skip this over this, otherwise keep reading. Matting is a technique used in the movie industry where they put many different elements (photographs) into one picture with good composition and story value. So here is the idea: get the list of starter cards, call some friends, grab a digital camera, make some mood and environment, have fun and take a ton of pictures! Later, go into Photoshop, try to place some elements together and send me your work. It is as simple as that, the main thing is the idea. All pictures can be enhanced and fixed so go for the idea, try to capture what the essence of card is from your point of view. If your skill in photoshop is not so great do not fear, make pictures and send them, I will make the necessary adjustments and corrections and even cut pieces.

If you do not want to do that, do not worry. Send me your ideas, or better yet some sketch of that idea, and I will try to recreate your idea in my photo studio. But that is not all, if any of your ideas or art make it into actual cards, you get the CREDIT as the artist! That's right, you will get your name printed in the lower left bottom of the card as the one responsible for that card art so you can show it off to friends and girls (or boys) :-).

If you have any more questions regarding how you can contribute, contact me on MSN or make a post on forum. Hope to see soon some of your work! Best wishes."

Inspiration on Design - A Guest Post from Our Lead Artist

2009-04-03T23:07:00.000-07:00

I asked Mirkov Sasa what inspired his great art for Conspiracy! Here's what he had to say"

"Hi all of you people on this great site, the man in charge for what we all believe will be next great thing in the TCG market has asked me to share some thoughts on the logo design process for the five fighting factions that are involved in the fight for supremacy on Earth. If you have not guessed by now, I am talking about CONSPIRACY!, our, and I really mean OUR great project!

Where to start, maybe I should talk about what logos really mean? No, I would like that to be a mystery and leave that to your imagination (there is really a story behind every single logo for each faction, believe it or not). Instead, I will try to share some of my inspiration for them, what has influenced me to make them.

This is rather difficult, more difficult than I first thought it would be. I mean I am supposed to explain my inspiration about the design for a game, but then again that game has been my inspiration all the way! Yes, the logos I have made for the game have been really inspired by game itself and by all of your posts explaining the game. As a designer, my job is to find most suitable, sense-making piece of art that looks good (well at least that is what I have learned in academy). So I tried to follow all of your leads and make faction logos as close to what I thought were your wishes as possible. Another thing is that I have always wanted to do this kind of work, after I had just finished a PC game project this was a really refreshing and nice thing to be working on. So after careful analysis of your posts, logos for factions were born, and after more of your posts some of them have been corrected, so as much of a credit is mine for them it is also yours. So I would really like to use this opportunity to express my thanks for all of You that have been providing me with feedback on designs. Also, your support for the project and talking about factions themselves have been a great helper for design. So if you are reading this hoping to find some X-Files, Star Trek or whatever influenced me, then I must disappoint you, because story and really well defined factions were all of the guide lines I needed and all of inspiration I needed as well.

Well after this crushing of all "I used this logo as a reminder of ..." hopes, how would you like to know what software I used? If you are interested, keep reading, if not, wait for my next post where I will be pleading for your help. First I would like to point out that ANY software could be used to create this graphic but my choice are:

Maestro, drums please.....

Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator (I hope Adobe will read this and give me some money for making their products look good :-) )

Well logos were completely done in Illustrator, templates for cards were made using both Photoshop and Illustrator. Why do I use these applications? Well first they are best ones on the market (now they really must give me some cash :-) ). I know to use them really well and they can copy/paste stuff between them without any saving or loss of quality.

Since any kind of tutorial would really take a LOT of space here, I will just say that if any of you have any questions regarding any of these two applications, feel free to give me a nudge on MSN and I will try to help you all best I can. What you really need to know is that Photoshop is a raster based application, and Illustrator is a vector based application, everything else needs a little more digging into them, but there are lot of free starter tutorials on the net including some on the official Adobe site.

Hope that I have not bored you all with this and hope that some of you will continue to support this project and maybe invite some more people into this. After all, I am looking forward beating you all in this game once it is finished :-)

Best wishes to you all, sincerely yours: Mirkov Sasa"

Wallpapers for Conspiracy!

2009-03-17T12:36:00.000-07:00

Thanks to our brilliant artist, Sasa Mirkov, we now have Desktop Wallpapers for Conspiracy! Check them all out here: Wallpapers.

Want to become a Conspiracy! Artist? Join us at the forums and learn more on how you can create the art for Conspiracy!

A Walk Down Memory Lane

2009-01-30T22:42:00.000-08:00

For those who weren't a part of 4GXG at the time, we began with figuring out what "The Setting" should be for the game we were creating. Though that vote ended up with Conspiracy! as our winner, there were dozens of other great ideas that will have to return for their chance in Project 4GXG 2.0.

Before Conspiracy! had been decided upon though, the Base participated in a game creating characters for the Settings based solely on the descriptions of the Setting. The result were some great short stories that show exactly how much talent the Base has!

Here's one of the favorites, written by SiddGames:

"Two non-descript men loitered outside the main entry to the Watson Tower lobby. To the uninitiated, they looked like a couple suits taking a smoke break; to the trained eye, they were clearly guards, probably wearing microsheath body armor and carrying stun guns and sidearms, highly trained in submission grappling and, above all, dedicated to the cause.

Bender simply walked past them and into the lobby, the men going about their business as if nothing happened. He stood silently before the elevator banks, waiting patiently. He continued to project "not here" to the guards while the small jammer clipped to his belt obscured him from the lobby cameras.

A striking redheaded woman entered the building, approached the elevators and pressed the UP button. Moments later, Bender sensed four people coming down the elevator. His brow furrowed slightly with the increased concentration of being "not here" for 7 people simultaneously. The door chimed and opened; two "executives" and two guards stepped out and walked to the exit as Bender eased himself into the elevator behind the redhead. The door closed and he relaxed a bit as the woman pressed the 50 button and they were whisked into the air.

That's when it became tricky. Bender sensed 37 people on the floor. His eyes became slits as he strained with exertion. He moved ever so slowly off the elevator, the woman going to the right while he headed left. He detected his target's thought pattern in an office on the east side of the building. Presidio accountants passed him in the hallways; Bender would occassionally give one a mental nudge to avoid a collission. Sweat started to bead on his forehead and temples.

Finally, he entered the target's office. A gray-haired man of dark complexion sat behind a large desk, eyes intently scanning the screen of his laptop. His thought patterns were strong and Bender almost felt ill. This was harder than he thought it would be. He decided to take a chance.

He slowly reached out with one hand and pushed the office door closed while dampening the target's auditory center. It clicked shut. Bender almost sighed in relief as he lowered and focused his projections to just the one man in the room. He walked casually over to stand beside the man and, with a brief lance from his mind, triggered a massive stroke in his target. The man stiffened and then leaned backward with a slight groan, eyes glassy, head lolling back to the left.

It took another 5 minutes for Bender to extricate himself from the building before vanishing back into the city, mission accomplished."

Quick Status Update

2008-10-15T14:53:00.001-07:00

There are two efforts going on right now in the background:

1) Foreman is making a final decision on what the cards will be in the two starters that will be our base set.

2) Dax.9 is working on the templates for the remaining card types.

Once these two steps are completed, we will have a working game!

In the meantime, if people have any ideas on how to generate more life in these forums, and get new users here as well, I'm definitely open to ideas!

Thanks all,
PJ

Help Design the Art for Conspiracy!

2008-10-05T08:10:00.000-07:00

Our lead art designer, Sasa Mirkov, is hard at work on the art for Conspiracy! and is looking for any feedback gamers may have.

If you'd like to help him out, please reach out to him in the Card Design thread.

Conspiracy! Character Card in Development

2008-09-12T14:34:00.000-07:00

Sasa is hard at work on designing the character card for Conspiracy!

Head over to the forum if you have any feedback for Sasa.

Conspiracy! Card Back Designed

2008-06-16T14:25:00.001-07:00

The card back for Conspiracy! has been designed. Thanks to Mirkov Sasa for a gorgeous piece of art!

First Official Conspiracy Story - Interrogation

2008-06-16T14:17:00.001-07:00

Interrogation - A Conpiracy! short story by Foreman
Jacqueline

Jacqueline looked down at the young blonde girl strapped in the chair in front of her, thinking about how much she hated this machine.

“Stop struggling dear, you’re only making it worse,” Jacqueline suggested, making sure to talk with her practiced American accent.

The brain of the machine was a large computer stored in the back of the complex but the part that Jacqueline could see was not pleasant to look at; a set of wires coming out of the four steel walls of the small room and leading into a heavy looking helmet that was placed on the girl’s head. The part that disturbed Jacqueline, though, was the seven needles that came out of the helmet and pierced the girl’s head. The needles periodically moved in an out, as they searched the girl’s mind for any traces of Harmony’s brainwashing.

Jacqueline wondered again if this invention had been one of her fathers - she knew he had worked on Presidio technology but she couldn’t imagine her father creating something this hideous. She forced the thought of her father out of her mind and returned her focus to the task at hand. Her superiors would not be happy with her if she buggered up this interrogation, and then she’d never find the answers she was looking for.

“Who are you?” Jacqueline demanded still maintaining her accent. Her only answer was a scream of pain as the machine finally finished its work and the needles violently retracted from the girls head back into the helmet.

She waited until the pain left the girl’s face before asking the question again.

“My.. name.. is .. Tara,” the words were barely audible, “what are you doing to me?”

Jacqueline hated it when they asked that. The truth was she didn’t know exactly how the machine worked or what kind of permanent damage it could do.

“Who sent you?” she asked, ignoring Tara’s question.

“What … do you mean?” was the strained reply.

“Who sent you to this facility? Was it Smith?” she doubted this girl remembered anything, they usually didn’t, but Jacqueline knew she was expected to ask the question anyway.

“Smith?” the girl questioned; an almost blank look on her face.

But Jacqueline could see that the girl was searching her memory and wanted an answer to Jacqueline’s questions just as badly.

“That’s it, think back. You must remember someone. Probably someone who seems more like a character from a bad dream than a real person.”

“There was a man,” the girl said as her forehead scrunched up.

“What was his name, I need a name!” Jacqueline’s mind was racing at the possibility that this new captive might actually remember something about her time with the Harmony group. If she could just get a name, prove her skills as an interrogator, maybe she could get access to the prisoner in cell 6 and get what she came for.

“Tom,” the girl burst out, “who’s Tom?”

Jacqueline didn’t usually let her emotions get the best of her; it could be fatal considering this masquerade she was playing. But as soon as she heard the name, Jacqueline’s heart raced. The General would be pleased indeed. Tom Black was one of the Harmony group's best recruiters.

“Someone will be along shortly to deal with you,” Jacqueline said curtly. She turned and swiped the implant in her hand over the detector and the large door opened outwards into the hall. She tried to ignore the guilt she felt as she stepped through the opening and the heavy metal door closed on the doomed young girl.

As she walked down the narrow hall of the facility Jacqueline tried not to think about the fate of the girl. She had her own problems to deal with. She had been playing this role too long and she was starting to get nervous that she would make a mistake and reveal herself. She was good at this, but she knew that even the best made mistakes. In fact, she counted on those mistakes to infiltrate these organizations.

She had been searching for the truth about her father’s death for three years now, and she felt like she was getting close to the truth. All the clues had lead to this facility and the prisoner in cell 6. Everything she had done in the last six months had been so that she could get a chance to question prisoner #6. Infiltrating the Presidio, getting assigned to this facility, brutally questioning prisoners - all of it. She had to know why her father was murdered. Nothing else mattered.

As Jacqueline passed room 6 she felt the old frustration rising from her gut again. She couldn’t understand why she hadn’t been given access to the one prisoner she truly needed to talk to. Who was behind that door? What could be so important about this one prisoner? She was so close to finding the answers she needed.

Jacqueline was still lost in thought when the first explosion rocked the base. The whole facility shook with the force of the attack. Jacqueline stumbled and winced as her knee banged into the solid metal floor but a klaxon wailed so loudly it drowned out Jacqueline’s stream of curses. She had just about gotten back up when the second tremor struck.

That’s when the lights went out. It was only a second before the back up generator came on, but a lot can happen in a second.

Jacqueline lost her balance once again, but this time it was the door to cell 6 slamming into her that caused her to fall. She managed to get her right hand out to prevent herself from slamming head first into the wall of the corridor, but she felt a sharp pain in her wrist as it twisted from the force of the impact. The next thing she knew Jacqueline felt a large hand around her neck, closing her airway.

When the lights came back on Jacqueline would have screamed in horror, if not for the hand around her throat. The face she saw was a mess of scars. The man’s head was completely bald. Even the eyebrows were missing. The eyes were what terrified her though. There were completely white. No pupils, just an empty white stare.

Looking into those eyes made Jacqueline feel an emptiness she hadn’t felt since her father died. After all she had seen in these last three years, she couldn’t believe that the last thing she was going to see were those eyes.

“Put her down!” the voice came from behind Jacqueline.

The man looked over Jacqueline’s shoulder and made a hissing noise. Suddenly, Jacqueline found herself flying through the air backwards and she crashed into her would-be rescuer.

“Get off me!” Jacqueline shouted as she untangled herself. By the time she had freed herself, Prisoner #6 was at the far end of the long corridor, and was entering Tara’s cell.

“Damn he’s fast,” Jacqueline thought to herself as she reached into her holster with her uninjured hand and removed her pistol. It had been a while since she had shot left handed, but she was looking forward to the practice.
“Go get back-up. I’ll deal with this,” Jacqueline yelled back to the security guard who was finally getting to his feet, as she sprinted down the corridor after prisoner #6.

Jacqueline ran as fast as she could but the pain in her knee slowed her down just enough. Maybe if she hadn’t been injured, she would have made it to the cell before the final wave of the attack on the facility. A series of explosions more powerful than any of the previous ones rocked the facility and it was impossible for Jacqueline to stay standing. This time the ceiling fell with her.

The torn up metal that had been the ceiling came crashing down on Jacqueline’s head. She forgot about her previous injuries and screamed out in pain when her leg was pierced with a large shard of shrapnel. As she lay bleeding on the ground with her legs pinned under pounds of twisted metal Jacqueline Vaughn could only watch as prisoner #6 stepped over her and walked out of what was left of the facility with the girl named Tara slung over his shoulder.

The last thought Jacqueline had before she passed out from the blood loss was the scarred face of prisoner #6 and the emptiness of those blank white eyes.