Swarm Development: Postmortem

[Hudders]

Nah, I'd say, let's go for the military one. It will add more uniqueness to the game.

Cyborg marine isn't particularly unique.

[Wyz]

That's why he is also a vampire. I don't know why people always have to draw capes and 18th century clothing when thinking about vampires, I mean it's pretty senseless.

[Ali]

I think it's because Dracula = good, Twilight = bad.

[Tabata]

...I don't know why people always have to draw capes and 18th century clothing when thinking about vampires, I mean it's pretty senseless.

... they have been shy and didn't want to be seen while biting or changing into a bat in the earlier days. It's like everywhere â€" the behavior of vampires has changed, too - Moral is lost not only to humans 


Well done new sprites!
They have very different charisma - so I think, that you need to choose, wether you prefer a kind of universal soldier going to be a vampire (using one of the cyborgs getting long teeth sometimes) or using one of the vampires going to get some implants.

Which way would fit better to the plot?
What powers are needed for Merrick (primarily physical or mental power) to do some  interesting puzzles?

[Baron]

May 15 Edit: Due to newcomer's confusion about where our "available jobs" are posted, this information has now been moved to the First Post of the Thread.  I've preserved the gist of this post for continuity purposes but all job info has been moved.
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Original Post

I think we're just about there.  I really like Abstauber's paintover of my marine dude (and yes I was thinking Riddick -"Chronicles of Merrick" must have put the idea in my head....  : ).  In terms of character I think the marine dude is more along the lines of what I was thinking of originally, so I guess I'm partial to that kind of Arnold Swarzenegger/Vin Diesel kind of monster.

But then I consider the experiment: there will be a lot of people with varying artistic abilities working together, and a more complex sprite is just asking for trouble.  The final "nail in the coffin" (if you'll permit me) for military dude is how his level of detail conflicts with the awesome background template (and we're not revisiting that).  See for yourself:



For these reasons I'm making an executive decision in favour of Sephiroth's adaptation of my adaptation of Anonymous's adaptation of Cat's sprite (it was the most collaborative design anyway).  I guess I can reveal that Anonymous was actually Ali all along, he just didn't want to be seen trying to control the entirety of the artistic design department.  Thanks for the overtime, Ali!  I thought Sephiroth's adaptation of Sephiroth's adaptation of... (I'll stop now) made the character a bit too mean looking to empathize with.

So moving on -let's SWARM! See First Post for Available Jobs!

That's all I can think of for now, but more will drip out over the coming days.  Good luck and have fun!

[Igor Hardy]

ANIMATION -use my robot arm in military colour experiment (above) for mechanical arm ideas
  -use this basic sprite to work from: try to preserve frames (or frame size) for ease of importing

1) Merrick side walk cycle (SIMPLE -4 frames will probably suffice)
2) Merrick front walk cycle ( ' ' )
3) Merrick side level take (reach out) (hopefully we can script it that only side views are necessary)
4) Merrick side high take (reach out)
5) Merrick side low take (bend & reach -NOT FOR FIRST TIMERS)
6) Talking animation (sides & front -just bobbing head with open mouth)
7) Biting animation (side) -we'll probably build a back facing one based on this
    ...more to come.

I want these! I don't know how much I can do in one hour, but I want at least 5, 6 & 7.

Does Merrick put his cape up when biting (like Dracula did in those old films)?

Also, how cartoony/realistic we're aiming at?

[Icey]

I got GUI job.

[Scarab]

ANIMATION -use my robot arm in military colour experiment (above) for mechanical arm ideas
  -use this basic sprite to work from: try to preserve frames (or frame size) for ease of importing

1) Merrick side walk cycle (SIMPLE -4 frames will probably suffice)
2) Merrick front walk cycle ( ' ' )
3) Merrick side level take (reach out) (hopefully we can script it that only side views are necessary)
4) Merrick side high take (reach out)
5) Merrick side low take (bend & reach -NOT FOR FIRST TIMERS)
6) Talking animation (sides & front -just bobbing head with open mouth)
7) Biting animation (side) -we'll probably build a back facing one based on this
    ...more to come.

I want these! I don't know how much I can do in one hour, but I want at least 5, 6 & 7.

Does Merrick put his cape up when biting (like Dracula did in those old films)?

Also, how cartoony/realistic we're aiming at?

I want these also, but is probably more than an hours work if more creep up. I'll work my way down the list and you work your way up?

[Armageddon]

I guess I'll give the lab background a shot, or the hallway since it seems better suited to my artistic abilities.

[Hudders]

I'll supply the doctor's rant.

[abstauber]

I'll draw the doctor then.

Just for clarification: something like this, right?
http://www.mobygames.com/game/dos/sam-max-hit-the-road/screenshots/gameShotId,14535/

[Corby]

I'll call the Robot Lab background.

[Hudders]

I'll draw the doctor then.

Just for clarification: something like this, right?
http://www.mobygames.com/game/dos/sam-max-hit-the-road/screenshots/gameShotId,14535/

It's like you're in my head. Can we have a laughter animation where he throws his head right back?

[Sephiroth]

What powers are needed for Merrick (primarily physical or mental power) to do some  interesting puzzles?

I thought turning into a bat/gaz and yeah mental powers (could be used in dialogs to trigger more options) would be a nice addition, but it could be hard to implement and/or not fit the plot.

EDIT: Would it be possible to use spoiler tags to hide the dialogs/puzzle solutions in the thread?

[Hudders]

@scarab & ascovel: make sure you work together. As we've not seen Merrick's arms yet, it would be a bit weird for him to have different looking limbs for reaching higher / lower places! (unless he's some kind of go-go-gadget robot and has all sorts of arms under that cape).

I had an idea whereby an army / marine officer enters the room after the Doctor has ranted at Merrick. The Doctor explains the purpose of the experiment to the Officer and then the two of them go off into a side office for more discussion. This piece of exposition should help explain away the military connection and I could write the Officer's lines to cover the "he doesn't look much like a marine" discussion we've been having in this thread.

We could take the basic shape of Absatuber's cyborg-marine and give him a General's uniform with peaked cap.

[abstauber]

It's like you're in my head. Can we have a laughter animation where he throws his head right back?

Hehe, I see what I can do. First I'll have to come up with something independent, yet stereotypical

EDIT:
I still don't see if we're doing comedy or tragedy. This is pretty important to do the character design of the villain, don't you think?

[Hudders]

I still don't see if we're doing comedy or tragedy. This is pretty important to do the character design of the villain, don't you think?

My vote is for comedy. Play it for laughs, else it's going to fall flat.

First draft of intro script:

DOCTOR

Ahahaha!
Come on now, Mr Merrick - wakey wakey!
This can't be the first time you've been roofied at a halloween party!
Arise, my pretty, and let the whole world witness my GREATEST INVENTION!
MWAHAHAHAHAHAAHA! AHAHAHAHAHA! AHA! HA! HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!
...
Ahem.
But, seriously now, you're the first in a very long line of vicious, psychopathic, vampire robot soldiers! So get up, you lazy -


GENERAL (entering)

Ahh, there you are, Doctor.
This is the new super soldier you promised us, I take it?

DOCTOR

General! What a pleasant surprise!
Yes, yes, this is, uhh... *Corporal* Merrick - the first in a long line of -

GENERAL (interrupting)

He looks a little weedy, don't you think?

DOCTOR

That's, umm, a side-effect... yes! Side-effect, he's just as fit and strong as he ever was! Better, even!
I'm having to keep him sedated, he's so strong!

GENERAL

Hm. Well, we'll see at the trials next week, I guess.
I've just come from the other applicant's facility and, boy, it's a doozy.
You've some stiff competition, Doc.

DOCTOR

Really? From that hack?
He couldn't genetically engineer his way out of a wet paper bag!

GENERAL

Funny. He said a similar thing about you.
Anyway - I take it you have some schematics to show me?

DOCTOR

Yes, they're in my office.
This way.

(DOCTOR and GENERAL leave)

Regarding this:

2) Merrick dialog/exchange with Scientists (or write around so that Merrick understands fire resistant properties of pine cones and/or survival capacity of cockroaches)

I think it could be worked into the backgrounds of the lab as other experiments the Doctor and his staff are working on.

[Anian]

Just wondering is anybody keeping track of time invested per person etc?

[Buckethead]

I'll try the hallway background.

[Baron]

In terms of realism..... he's a cartoony ex-marine vampire cyborg!  A mechanical arm shooting out from his right side would be fine, and it can extend to keep things simple (but not indefinitely -that would make some light puzzles obsolete).  I don't think outright silly should be your objective, but if it turns out funny I don't have a problem with that.  For biting I definitely think a little cape cover would be awesome looking and practical too (it might get fiddly to coordinate biter and victim when both are fully visible).

Edit: If you meant how smoothly he should move (ie how many frames) I would say get the gist of the movement down (keyframes) and we'll fill in intermediary frames later if we have the will/manpower. 

In terms of tone..... I think we should aim for a degree of seriousness recognizing full well that it's going to turn out funny.  I'm not just fence sitting: for me this plot reads like a "B movie" and it should be treated as such.  So the characters take themselves seriously, even though the whole plot is absurd.  

@Hudders: I think your draft has merit (although we've got some feature creep by adding another character   ), but the doctor should tone down the overt silliness just a tad ("Wakey wakey!" for example).  Over the top creepy (which becomes absurd and therefore funny) would probably play out better.  More explanation of why Merrick is weedy and dressed in a vampire costume would be more important than rivalry with another facility plot-wise (good as the jokes were!).  You've also left out a few crucial bits of plot that the player will need: 1) different types of blood give the vampire the ability of that creature (dog blood for obedience in the plot draft), and 2) the facility is under attack giving him an opportunity to escape.

@abstauber: yeah, just like in the link.  Only....  don't make the fingers so long.

@anian: I have a table of all volunteers & their work preferences and/or completed tasks.  I've informally said I'm flexible with contribution time (it's now an hour-ish) -why turn away an extra 15 minutes of voluntary contribution time?  But of course no one is required to spend more than an hour if they don't want to.  I think it might be unwieldy to try to keep track of all time spent (I haven't been keeping track of my own time on the project, already over an hour!).

@Tabata: Regarding spoiler tags.... How do people feel about this?  I've tried to be very open thinking the more swarm members know the better the game will turn out, but that does come at the expense of keeping things secret for players.  Have we gone too far to change now?

Great to see all the enthusiasm so far -I can't wait to see some art.