Feed me! I need resources!

TerranRich · Mon 16/01/2006 18:04:31

Heh, hello all. I'm back, so it seems. After playing "Out Of Order" (made with SLUDGE) I was inspired once again to start work on an adventure game. The thing is, I've been tinkering around with a bunch of different ideas: reviving that Southcoast City game I was working on, with a new plot and setting, but the same concept (RPG-adventure hybrid); reviving By the Sword: Conspiracy once again; a whole new concept.

Thing is, first, I want to practice my graphical skills. You see, lately, I've been getting really good with Adobe Illustrator here at my job, and I was considering using vector graphics for my game. I looked at the style used in Out Of Order and I noticed that it could really be done using vector graphics. I also finally realized that graphics aren't everything in a game. After all, OOO one several (two) adventure gaming awards.

I don't think I'm quite ready to tackle By the Sword quite yet. That is a long-term project that I'm just not ready for just yet. The demo is still floating around on http://bts.xylot.com/ though.

No, I've been thinking of several game ideas. I just want to do something simple, short, and sweet right now. I have a few ideas floating around, but I need some help from you guys. Anybody that could help me out with simple, easy, and fun game ideas would be greatly respected by myself.

Also, I need some resources on walk cycles. I've searched throughout the web, but sometimes good sites aren't easy to find through Google. Also, the Kafka site (http://www.sylpher.com/kafka) is down. I might check out the InstaGame pack. But does anybody have any ideas as to where I could find walk cycles. I don't really mean tutorials, but more like actual walk cycles that perhaps I could...trace over and make my own?

I'm really not that graphically inclined, but it's about time I started trying...

MrColossal · Mon 16/01/2006 18:12:20

http://kafkaskoffee.com is my new site

you could record your own walk cycles, or use poser and trace that, but it would need tweeking since poser walk cycles tend to float on tip toes and have no weight to them.

TerranRich · Mon 16/01/2006 18:25:37

Meh, I'm avoiding Poser from now on until eternity. i've sworn it off. Plus, Poser walk cycles look like utter shit.

Thanks for the new link to your site! I'll check it out in a bit.

Evil · Mon 16/01/2006 19:33:27

Pessi posted some awesome (ly huge) walkcycles of a body frame. I saved it somewhere but it'll take some looking for. I've tryed recording walk cycles before. Typically, if you don't average all of your frames, the human walk is so irregular, they look aweful.

Andrew Loomis had some good cycles one of his books, but www.saveloomis.org has taken them all down. They are very big PDFs, and I'm sure you could find them somewhere. If I recall someone had a few of the pages posted. Maybe Loominous? I'll look for both of those things.

SSH · Mon 16/01/2006 21:17:48

Or look at the links in the wiki page on calkwycles

http://americangirlscouts.org/agswiki/index.php/Walkcycle

MrColossal · Mon 16/01/2006 22:17:49

Here's a 3d dude I animated a while ago... could use this I guess... He's at 15 frames now but you could shave him down more I suppose...

I took them down to 8 as a test and they would work fine for tracing I think

big brother · Tue 17/01/2006 15:30:07

I don't know about the passing keyframe there....

Definitely check this out:

The Animator's Survival Kit by Richard Williams

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0571202284/103-6678957-5951047?v=glance&n=283155

I have read this book, and it's the best I've seen on the topic.

MrColossal · Tue 17/01/2006 15:31:43

it's just a 15 frame walk cycle that was knocked down from 30.. I didn't really take a second look at it but yes, I own that book and it's the king

vict0r · Tue 17/01/2006 16:21:40

Wow! That looks great!

Ordering that right away

TerranRich · Tue 17/01/2006 21:25:16

SSH: I didn't even know there was an AGS Wiki!

Also: http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/yabb/index.php?topic=22707.msg278785#msg278785

This is awesome. Thanks, guys! I already have an entire plot planned out. I basically started with one puzzle idea and expanded both backward and forward until I got a complete short game that I plan on making.

Does anybody know of any resources for dialog paths? I want to include one dialog puzzle (practice) and I just want to see a sample or two before I make my own dialog tree.