Okay, my second Supergirl game, which will be a helluva lot more ambitious than the first one and thus it'll take a helluva lot longer to finish. It will also be made with Adventure Game Studio.

The differences with the first one include:

• A new interface. Not only does it look better, but if you look closely, you'll notice she now has super-breath as well. I still have no idea where she'll use it (other than the fights) but I'm sure I'll think of something.
• Fights! Yes, you heard it right; this time around she'll get to kick some villainous butt. Lots of it in fact. I'm still testing ideas regarding the type of fights, but most likely it'll look like a turn-based version of the Quest For Glory fight engine. The only thing that's truly settled at this point is that the game will offer you a difficulty level (which will apply only to the fights). If you enjoy the fight system and want to make the whole thing competitive, then put it on maximum difficulty and brace yourself to get a couple of teeth knocked out. But if you just want the adventure game and don't care much for the fighting, just put it on minimum and you'll be able to beat anyone in the game with a couple of punches.
• A new costume. Now she wears a skirt and her cape has the yellow trim of her new look in the comics, though I prefer the old look for the rest of the costume.
• 32-bit CGI graphics. I'm going to be using Maya, 3ds Max, Bryce and Poser on this one. Even if the game sucks, it's going to look stunning.
• A much longer, much more complex game. The game will be divided in three parts. The first one will take place in Midvale (Supergirl's home town). The second will take place on a Caribbean island. And the third, well, you'll have to play the game to see it. There will be towns of NPC characters to interact with, and a plot that would be worthy of the Scripts section.
• AGS plugins. I'm going to need at least two plugins that I'll write myself. The first one will allow me to put the backgrounds in JPG files rather than the way AGS normally does it. This is necessary because the backgrounds are going to be way to big (32-bit 640x480) and I'm planning to have at least 50 rooms, which would make the game hundreds of megabytes long unless I compress the heck out of them. And second, I'm going to write a plugin that creates the heat vision and super-breath effects (although I could do super-breath with sprites). Both plugins will be available on this page also so anyone can use them in their games. Unfortunately, the use of plugins means that the game will only run on Windows (or a pretty good Windows emulator). I've already finished the first plugin, so I'll post it soon.

I haven't plotted the whole thing yet, but here's the little that I have, without any real spoilers.

The story starts with a cut scene where the villain (whose name I haven't decided yet and who is essentially a Bill Gates clone) announces in a press conference from his megacorporation's headquarters that he has made a breakthrough in android technology. He has discovered the way to create intelligent, humanoid robots that, according to him, will serve to solve all of the world's problems. In his vision of the ideal world, the androids would do everything that humans do now but don't want to, like work, while humans will live their lives in absolute bliss, doing nothing more than playing video games and drinking. In order to demonstrate the plausibility of his idea, he has just purchased an island in the Caribbean that would be his personal version of paradise, where the androids will do everything for him. In a month, when all the bugs have been sprayed, he plans to open the island to "select members of the public" so they can all see the brilliance of his plan.

Then the story goes back to Midvale and Supergirl watching the press conference on TV. She turns to the player and says, "An island controlled by androids created by a megalomaniac. Oh, gee, what could possible go wrong." But since he hasn't (yet) violated any laws, she can't do much to stop him other than try and find out what his plans really are.

The first part of the game will take place in Midvale, while Supergirl investigates the megacorporation and at the same time, tries to keep the order in her town. She'll fight a couple of guest super-villains (probably), foil a bank robbery (most likely), and generally do superheroine stuff. The fights in this part of the game won't be too challenging, but Supergirl will get the chance to practice her skills against a VR opponent at Star Labs.

The second part starts when Supergirl decides that something decidedly fishy is going on that certainly requires her attention, so she decides to go to The Island and investigate further.

The third part will be the climax, where she gets to fight a lot, smash titanium doors, and generally kick villainous butt in spectacular ways. I can't tell you much about this part (not even where it'll take place) without spoiling the plot, so you'll have to wait for the game.

Since the game will be so long, and it's going to be a long while before it's finished (and it's going to need lots of beta testing), I'll be placing here sneak peaks of the game. Soon I'll post the first version of the fight engine so you can give me your thoughts about it.