<edit> The Prisoner Backgrounds (w Character added)

[Quintaros]

This is my first attempt at a background.  I think its completely lacking of finesse when it comes to shading.  Could I get some criticism for how it could be improved? Thanks

[Femme Stab Mode >:D]

That looks nice! As you said yourself it could be shaded otherwise it's great!

[SLaMgRInDeR]

i agree, looks great!
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[Neole]

I think it looks lovely! There could be a lighter grass surrounding thing around the castle, like a lawn or some fence.

[Quintaros]

Thanks for the encouragement, fellas.  Here is an updated version.

[Jimi]

 :o Woweee...thats great. Is that a tree coming out of the front of the castle?

[Flippy_D]

It's ivy, f00'.

Yeah, looks nice. Got a watercolour feel to it. You might want to polish off the trees on the right a bit, you can see little bits of light there at the moment.

[Quintaros]

How about this one?

[Flippy_D]

Now that's just awesome. Very nice indeed.
Your style is very art deco, no? the only thing that could use some adjustment is the alignment of the windows in comparison to the roof. Other than that, great!

[Quintaros]

It's not supposed to be art deco...or at least that is to say I don't know what art deco really is.  If you mean the architecture, its because their done over photographs of Portmeiron which certainly has a unique style.

I see what you mean about the windows on the cafe in the background.  There is supposed to be an extension coming out so the windows are on a different face but its not clear in the image.  I'll have to fix that.

[Meowster]

Gorgeous, really gorgeous, styled and unique. I would have only one critisism of the top screenshot, and that is the road looks as though it's dropped off the edge of the world or something. Maybe it's meant to be a hill in which case a bit of shading wouldn't go amiss.

Your art reminds me of Delphine Software. Wow, Delphine Software. They were yonks and yonks ago.

I really love those screens

[deltamatrix]

You seem to have a head start in developing your skills.

1st Background: I don't like the round blobs on shade on the grass. Try making it more of s gradient

2nd: I like this one. Feels like an old lucasarts pic.
You might wanna try anti-aliasing the sand against the sea. Thats what I'd do. But where would EGO walk on this screen?

[Quintaros]

I feel the same way about the circular blotches.  I've experimented a little more since then and found better ways to achieve the shading I was going for.

On the 2nd pic, Ego can walk up to the edge of the retaining wall and go into the boat.

[Quintaros]

And another.

I think I'm starting to get a feel for this.  I'll go back and fix my first one now.



I think I'm starting to get a feel for this.  I'll go back and fix my first one now.

[Neole]

These look excellent! If you could use a rotoscoped (animation traced from real life) main character it would fit perfectly.

[Quintaros]

My plan was to rotoscope poser images in the same style.

I tried making a nightime image of the boat scene.  The tide is in so the beach is gone.  I don't know what to do about the moon and I'm not sure about the water and level of darkness.




Here is my first test at rotoscoping a poser man.  This won't be my final ego, but was just a test to see if this was viable.  How does he look with the background? Are they compatable styles?  I think is scale isn't right for this image but I think you get the idea.

[Gregjazz]

The character you made doesn't quite work with the style of the backgrounds. He looks too shaded and 3D rendered.

I like the last two backgrounds the best.

[Miez]

These look excellent! If you could use a rotoscoped (animation traced from real life) main character it would fit perfectly.

Absolutely, traced video would work charms with these backgrounds. They remind me a bit of Darkseed, without the tentacles obviously. Very good work!

[GarageGothic]

Looks great. Especially the boat and the town. The night one is too dark to really see on this monitor. I would put in some more contrast (moonlight on one side of the boat, perhaps silhouetting it).

Portmeiron, eh? This wouldn't happen to be a "The Prisoner" game, would it? Looking at the pics I would guess not (no boats in The Village), but I think the plot would be a great premise for a game.

[Flippy_D]

Not only is the character too 3D, it's also too large...

But you did say that it was a preliminary, so I won't nitpick.

Looking nice. Very stormy.

[Quintaros]

Portmeiron, eh? This wouldn't happen to be a "The Prisoner" game, would it? Looking at the pics I would guess not (no boats in The Village), but I think the plot would be a great premise for a game.

It is indeed a Prisoner game (Don't tell whoever owns the rights).  Glad there's somebody who recognizes it.  The boat is the "Stoneboat"... the landlocked boat that some villagers play on sometimes.

[Vel]

Cant wait to play your game, whatever it is.

[Quintaros]

Now seems like as good a time as any to describe the game itself.

It's based on the TV series The Prisoner, made in Britain in 1967-68.
A British intelligence agent resigns from his post.  He's followed back to his London flat and is gassed out.  He awakes in a replica of his flat but discovers that he is actually not in London.  He is in the Village, an island community where people are stripped of their name and given numbers.  His captors want information,starting with why he resigned.  He doesn't know whether his captors are his former bosses or their enemies but either way he will not comply.  He must escape.  Other inhabitants of the Village may also be prisoners...but which ones?  The focus of the game will be to identify allies and enemies so you can make escape attempts while at the same time avoiding the brainwashing and other interrogation techniques of the warders.  

Would this game plot be of interest to gamers who are completely unfamiliar with the series?  Also my plan is to make the game episodic with self-contained adventures.  Would this be too frustrating for a player since escape attempts in all but the last episode will be destined for failure?


Here is another attempt at "roto-ing" a poser figure.  Does it still look too rendered?  It was done using the same technique as the background so I think it looks fairly compatable with the images.

[GarageGothic]

Woohoo, a Prisoner game. Yes, the stone boat, of course. I'd forgot about that.

The new No. 6 character looks great. Reminds me of the style in Future Wars. The face needs touch-up though, but that shouldn't be too difficult. Just make the face longer (get rid of the left column of pixels in the face) and perhaps add a nose, even if it's just a 2 pixel line slightly above the mouth.

I think anyone interested in mysterious, surreal games would enjoy this, even if they don't know the series (shame on them!) But more importantly, you should try to make it feel new to those familiar with the original episodes. Few of the original plots would make much sense as interactive stories (although I do think a Degree Absolute episode, structured entirely as a dialog tree where you try to break down No. 2 would be amazing) . One episode that WOULD work is the one where No. 6 plays on No. 2's paranoia by pretending to be a spy sent out to report on No. 2.

The episodic structure is essential to the whole idea of the series (a new No. 2 each week, The Prisoner always failing to escape). But remember that the series had a new theme for each episode (democracy, paranoia etc.) and that it actually got more an more symbolistic as it proceeded. I would recommend looking into some of the writings on the series. I can recommend a few books if you're interested (I wrote a paper on it once).

If you need any feedback on your story/puzzles from someone familiar with the series, I'd be more than happy to help.

Good luck. I can't wait to see this finished.

[Quintaros]

Here's another attempt using a larger size sprite and limiting myself to a pallete.  I'll probably adjust the colours some but I think I'm starting to get the look I'm looking for in the character.



Okay I think I've fixed the eye thing.

[GarageGothic]

I couldn't see the pic in the message, but cutting-and-pasting the address seemed to do the trick. The face looks better on the new pic. I preferred the darker and more muted color scheme of the first though.

Edit: Just took another look. There's something about his eyes/eyebrows, he looks too worried I think.

[evilspacefart]

I like both. the first roto-ing before no6 is also good and doesn't look rendered to me.

[Quintaros]

There's something about his eyes/eyebrows, he looks too worried I think.

Yeah I'm not quite happy with the eyes either. I think its the colours more than the angle of the brow.

GarageGothic: I'm always happy to meet another fan of the show.  I agree that some of the original plots would be difficult to adapt to a game but I think the overall universe of The Prisoner is rich enough to find other stories to tell with a greater amount of interaction.  I agree with you regarding the episodic nature of the series and the way which each episode explored a theme.  I'm going for that feel as well and will try to address themes in the game such as capitalism, religion, heroic worship, love...  

I'm going to make each episode an individual game (planning about 7) so that the player gets a sense of completion even though there's more to come.  Each ending will provide a password to play the following episode/game.

Good luck. I can't wait to see this finished.

Man I'm still figuring out how to use Paint Shop.  It's gonna be a long wait.

[Rincewind]

Both backgrounds and the character looks really good. Haven't seen the show, but I know about it.


"Who are you?"
"The new number two."
"Who is number one?"
"You are number six."
"I am not a number - I am a free man!"
Hehe.

[|Alky|]

Brilliant, brilliant idea...
I love that wierdness of the series, and it fits an adventure game perfectly...
Will it be voice acted?
And can I have a Cameo? ^_^

[Matt Brown]

uhhh...is that guy wearing pants?

[GarageGothic]

I still think the colors are too bright, especially those orangy brown pants. Have you tried inserting the new character into a background yet? I think you will find that the darker, muted colors of the small of your first version (not the rendered guy but the pixel one) fit much better with the backgrounds.

[Quintaros]

Okay how about these colours?

Will it be voice acted?
And can I have a Cameo? ^_^

Music was so essential to the series that I always planned on ripping it from the soundtracks (I'll have to buy them first).  Once you have music it seems strange not to have other sounds...so yeah I'd like to have it voice acted.  But I was kind of planning a one man show for the game creation and I'm no voice actor.  So I guess I will have to recruit.  

I haven't played any games that had audio dialogue.  Does it slow the game down?  Have past efforts to get voice actors from the community been successful?

[SLaMgRInDeR]

they are all great! but on the second background, the windows are out of perspective and the boar looks a little like either the front is floating in the air, or its crashed into the wall thing, also the wall thing is a little plain, add some little bits of shading to make it look more rocky, apart from that, great!

EDIT: if your desperate enough im up for voice acting.
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[Quintaros]

...on the second background, the windows are out of perspective and the boat looks a little like either the front is floating in the air, or its crashed into the wall thing...

The boat is built in situ...attached to the stone wall.  It's called the stone boat.  

I do plan on fixing the perspective issues but I'm currently trying to establish a colour pallete so I haven't gotten back to that fix.

[SLaMgRInDeR]

... a boat... thats part of a wall... hmm....
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[Quintaros]

Can you tell that this character is female or should I go with a different hairsyle (in a pony tail now)?

[Evil]

Breasts might be nice

[OneThinkingGal and ._.]

Better defined waist, slimmer shoulders, less muscle, more hair, slimmer neck. Also the posture is very very male-agressive.

Still a bit too tall, but i didnt touch that.

[Quintaros]

Thanks for the suggestions ThinkingGal.  It's amazing what a difference a few pixels make.  

Better?

[OneThinkingGal and ._.]

An improvement, yup.

Women don't really spread thier legs that much in any normal pose. You might wanna bring them closer or create that illusen by making the trousers longer and dropping the outer corners, instead of the way you have them now.

She needs to lose the male chin tho Try a pointy look.

 Just blowing it up for a closer look.

[Quintaros]

Here's a few more characters.  Making these guys is addictive.  I was initially disappointed with the resolution limitation but I'm starting to actually dig these pixely looking characters.  Now I know what so many of you guys like about the pixely style.