Swarm Development: Postmortem

[Sephiroth]

Hello,

I like this idea and tried a really quick edit of the sprite, made the skin paler, added some hair/eyebrows to make him look a bit more evil rather than old :p

And of course the vampire's favorite weapon, the cane with hidden blade! Ok it doesn't look great but I liked the idea, feel free to do whatever you want with it 



Best Regards

[abstauber]

Hey,

I've tried to dissociate my draft from the current "Count Borg" sprites




This sprite has a bit more of a cyborg than the typical Bela Lugosi type of vampire.



PS: Sephiroth, your cybat is plain awesome

[Hudders]

I like the collar, added by Baron, but I don't really like the cyborg eye thing.

Maybe there doesn't need any externally visible robot parts? (this would also make animating easier since left and right could just be mirrors).

Some random thoughts:

The walk animation should be a mix of Nosferatu and Michael Jackson's Thriller.

As a robot vampire, Merrick should sleep in an Apple iCoffin. 

[Ali]

As a robot vampire, Merrick should sleep in an Apple iCoffin. 

Surely he would be a PC. After all, Dracula never drinks... wine.

That may be the most obscure quip I've ever made.

[abstauber]

Just for the consideration:
and yes, I know that I'm sort of too late

The main character has these main characteristics:
* vampire
* cyborg
* marine

For me, typical keywords are:
vampire: pale complexion, fangs, cape, but also  pride, sleek elegance, creepiness, arrogance

cyborg: artificial limps, metal 'n meat symbiosis, wires, hydraulics, but also inflammation, defacement

marine: Rambo, muscles, guns, testosterone... okay, I can't come up with anything original here 


By all means, I don't want to ruin the fun and after all I'm just a volunteer/drone, but the current sprite has about 10% in common with the plot.

Currently we have a very stereotypical vampire with an artificial eye. I don't want to say, that my pixel-mess is any better, I just can't loose the feeling that we aren't fully there yet.

[Baron]

Hey,

I've tried to dissociate my draft from the current "Count Borg" sprites




This sprite has a bit more of a cyborg than the typical Bela Lugosi type of vampire.

PS: Sephiroth, your cybat is plain awesome

Awesome!  But it would be nightmare to animate with so many fingers in the pot.

I guess I'm fixated on the "cyborg" element because it's his motivation.  That's why he's angry at the [military?], and that's why the vampire twins turn against him.  I do like Hudder's variations on Anonymous...

...but I think the implant looks too much like half of a pair of sunglasses or 3D glasses (1.5D?).  I'm not sold on the colours either, although Sephiroth's visible fangs and paler skin (and return to hair) definitely look better than my paintover.

EDIT  I think abstauber makes a good point: the probably would be more butch.  The problem is an entire redesign will eat up valuable contribution time and scrap some good efforts....  I guess for the good of the end product we'll leave off making any decisions for a day or two more to give people an opportunity to put their thoughts into picture form.  Maybe just sketches so people aren't sinking a lot of time into this before we have a more concrete direction. 

[Hudders]

I didn't realise he was a marine to be honest! I didn't get that from the backstory, must have missed it?

We could just put RoboCop in a cape and be done with it.

[Ali]

Tried to do butch vampire, came out gay frankenstein (possible sequel?):

[Wyz]

I like the new direction the sprites are going! Abstauber's version is very cool, but maybe a bit too difficult for this project.

I like Ali's sprite but it does need work, maybe tone down the physique a bit and make the jaws less square.

And when is this going to swarm again?

[Sephiroth]

I wanted to say I liked the Anonymous version as well (with a cyber-parts rework), or the latest one Baron has been posting because:

1- It is simple enough to animate, yet good looking.
2- You can tell at first sight what it's all about, when I look at it I see a vampire whose head is partly mechanic (like kanu in mortal kombat? :p), a cyber-vampire.
3- It looks classy/conceited/evil enough to be a vampire, I don't mind the stereotype at all
4- There's a great silly/creative feel to it...

abstauber's version is excellent, maybe too much details like others mentioned,  I love it, but he looks more like a cyber-zombie to me because of the blue skin. Could be added as a cyber-ghoul NPC along with Frankenstein? 

[Hudders]

Tried to do butch vampire, came out gay frankenstein (possible sequel?):

Love interest. Tragically killed by lightning.

Merrick: "I love you, Frankenbot"
Frank: "I love you too" <dies>

[abstauber]

Hmm... maybe we should also think about which type of vampire we want to have:

Something like: Nosferatu  vs. Edward Cullen

Anyway I made a cleaned version with reduced colors and details:



But if we go for a toon style, that sprite is completely misplaced

Edit: What I miss in the anonymous solution, is the marine part - the slacky pose reflects the opposite and his cyborg arm is also invisible.

[Tabata]

                   

Heh, heh, heh ...
I couldn't withstand try changing it a bit more in direction to the borg-queen because I still like the idea of floating around with Merrick.
He also got a pliers-hand including lasers for grabbing (and maybe calling home, like E.T. ) - I know, it's only fun, because the marine part is missing (I didn't realise, that it had to be) but I wanted to share.

Hopefully there are more of your great ideas coming up - I like the way, this is going

[Hudders]

Edit: What I miss in the anonymous solution, is the marine part

I really don't think he should have any thing to do with being a marine. Robot vampire is good enough. If he's a marine, he needs to completely lose the costume which, in my opinion, is the best bit of the sprite right now.

[TomatoesInTheHead]

I think the collective intelligence of the swarm has decided by now through all the sprites that the marine part should be discarded
I'm for less discussions (Radiant's wikipedia analogy could become true, he must be proven wrong!!!) and more individual work being put together even if it's not 100% fitting.

And all these sprites look great in their own way, I hope they can be included with some alterations for some NPCs in the game.

[Hudders]

                   

Vampire twins!

[Baron]

I think the collective intelligence of the swarm has decided by now through all the sprites that the marine part should be discarded
I'm for less discussions (Radiant's wikipedia analogy could become true, he must be proven wrong!!!) and more individual work being put together even if it's not 100% fitting.

And all these sprites look great in their own way, I hope they can be included with some alterations for some NPCs in the game.

I too am chomping at the bit to get going, but the potential to make this game look and feel really unified is too tempting.  Just an extra day or two to get the right sprite design to go along with the background style and plot could make the difference between a good experiment and a good game.  There'll be plenty of time for divergent styles to take their toll, but few chances to bring the game together into something unified.

Here's my latest attempt, based on Sephiroth's adaptation of my adaptation of anonymous #2:

Basically I've added a mechanical arm and played with his colouring to be more "military".

Is there room in the OSD Universe for Gay Frankenstein?  Only six more months to Hallowe'en....

In terms of redesign: the marine backstory is not critical, but why then is the military creating vampire cyborgs?  Ease of animation is definitely highly important to the redesign, and easily recognizable character should also be a priority.  Merrick's characteristics as I see them are: violated being x2 (turned vampire, turned cyborg) and all that entails -identity crisis, self-loathing....  Also he is a killing machine, both biologically (vampire) and mechanically (cyborg) -he might as well be intellectually (marine training) as well.  Finally there is that vengeful streak: he wants to escape and get back at those who have done him harm.  He's basically a very simple character: bloodthirsty, although slightly conflicted as to whose blood to thirst for and by what means to extract it.

Edit: Yet more experimenting....


   ....pushing 60px, despite the wonky proportions to try to shrink him.  Definitely less vampiry, but I think I hit the marine/cyborg buttons pretty well.

[Sephiroth]

I really don't think he should have any thing to do with being a marine. Robot vampire is good enough. If he's a marine, he needs to completely lose the costume which, in my opinion, is the best bit of the sprite right now.

Totally seconded! The latest reworked version (towards military style) isn't really good looking to me, changing the colors totally messed it up IMHO. I really like the classy costume he had with the black cape. But then again this is just an opinion.

[abstauber]

@Baron: I can't loose the feeling that Merrick = Riddick

Anyway, your second experiment is pretty close to the provided description.

Another paintover: how's this?


OR: we drop the marine like everyone else says and go with a variation of anonymous (preferably Sephiroth's with the yellow vest)


edit:
Yet another try:

[Wyz]

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

I like Baron's newest sprite and also it's simplicity yet strikingness to the point I'd say: go for it!

Few minor things:
- The guy looks like he has rickets, the legs need to be longer and straighter.
- The prosthetic leg looks a bit funny to me
- I like Abstaubers paint-over, except the head mechanics, but it is very close!

Other then that: pretty sweet!