Swarm Development: Postmortem

[abstauber]

Actually, the 'just-one-hour-deal' sold the project to me


What about the General, does he need a closeup too?

[Hudders]

I'm just saying that if we stick religiously to the one-hour dealie, we'll never finish because there aren't enough people involved. We'll see.

What about the General, does he need a closeup too?

I edited the General out of the second draft based on Baron's notes, (might be cool to have closeups of the Doctor putting dog's blood into the IV and turning the cassette on though):

DOCTOR (unseen)

   Corporal Merrick?

FADE IN

DOCTOR

   Are you awake?

MERRICK (unseen)

   (sounds of struggle)

DOCTOR

   No, no, don't struggle.
   Do you remember who you are? No? Hm... that's not good. Your name is Merrick, you are... were, a United States Marine.
   I'm Doctor Tabata, you're in my lab. You volunteered to take part in some medical trials.
   The experiment took an unexpected turn. That's not to say it wasn't successful... but I might need you to sign another consent form.

MERRICK (unseen)

   Buh?

DOCTOR

   Don't try and speak just yet. That's not the mouth you're used to.
   We had to... remove your brain.

MERRICK (unseen)

   Buhrain!?

DOCTOR

   I know, I know.
   That does seem a bit of an extreme step when all you came in here for was a hair transplant... but the good news is we found another body to put it into.
   And it even has a full head of hair!
   Unfortunately it's also a... vampire. Of sorts.

MERRICK (unseen)

   Vuhmpire?!

DOCTOR

   I'm as surprised as you! Turns out our cyborg vampire super soldier project was the perfect host for your orphaned brain.
   Now we don't have to design all the fiddly AI we had planned! Corporal, you have saved us literally tens of dollars in R&D.
   Your country is indebted to your sacrifice.

MERRICK (unseen)

   Vhat??

DOCTOR

   There's no need to be ungrateful.
   Just think of the wonderful possibilities this new body could give you - all the benefits of vampirism and the advantages of modern robotics! It's win-win.

FADE OUT

FADE IN

MERRICK (unseen)

   (screams)

DOCTOR
   
   Ah, I see you've discovered your bionic arm. I'm quite pleased with how that turned out.
   The vampire DNA really helped avoid infection. You might also notice you have a bionic eye. I'd show you it in a mirror but, again... vampire.

MERRICK (unseen)

   (sounds of struggle)

DOCTOR

   (sigh)

   Come on now, Mr Merrick. That's not going to get you anywhere.
   Frankly I'm disappointed in your reaction, Corporal. I expected you to embrace your new found gifts and praise me as your saviour.
   Instead you decide to rebel and squander all that I've given you.
   I guess I'm going to have to take drastic action.

FADE OUT

FADE IN

DOCTOR

   There's an interesting quirk to your particular form of vampirism: you'll find you take on the qualities of whatever you consume.
   This is dog's blood. It should make you more... obedient.

MERRICK (unseen)

   (whimpers)

DOCTOR

   Sit! Good boy. Now... stay!
   I'm going to play you a cassette tape, I want you to listen to every word. Every word! Soon you'll learn some gratitude!

CASSETTE (repeating)

   OBEY

DOCTOR
   
   (laughs but is cut short by -)

AN ALARM SOUNDS

SCIENTIST / GUARD (unseen)

   Doctor! The compound is under attack!

DOCTOR (worried)

   What!? Is it those giant cockroaches again!? They're a real pain in the ass to kill!
   You stay here, boy! Battle stations, everyone!

FADE OUT

Let me know what you think.

[yarooze]

I would like to try one of those:

BACKGROUNDS:
4) EXERCISE YARD

CHARACTER DESIGN
2) Scientists (2) in robot lab

If they are still free, I'll spend an hour of this weekend  

edit:

An hour is much shorter than I thought... (ok, I knew this, but hoped, that it will be longer than 60 minutes)

I wasn't able to do much (yes, I'm slow)  :'(, but I hope this is something that another hive member can start with...  :

I made the EXERCISE YARD darker, so it is possible to make lighter areas with solid patches of yellow at 50% transparency as Ali wrote in his post.




PS. There were troubles with tinypic. Please tell me if you cannot see the pictures, I re-upload them somewhere else.

PPS. Dunno if I can spend more than an hour without breaking the concept of hive-developing. Maybe I can participate on this project later, but now I have to recharge myself... ...resistance is futile...

[Pinback]

@Hudders - Ah ED-209, how I adore thee!

@ Scarab - Yep, caterpillar treads look like the order of the day:)

EDIT) Ah hell, floating is even easier. Plus I only have about 15 minutes left to do all the animations anyway.

[Tabata]

...

DOCTOR
   ...   I'm Doctor Tabata, ... The experiment took an unexpected turn. That's not to say it wasn't successful... but I might need you to ...
...

Let me know what you think.

:o You took a peek in my real life  -   are you a spy? (*searching for the surveillance camera*)   :o


The story works well for me   


... and I also like the trainingyard from yarooze and Pinback's robot â€"  good work!


The swarm is growing!     

[Hudders]

...

DOCTOR
   ...   I'm Doctor Tabata, ... The experiment took an unexpected turn. That's not to say it wasn't successful... but I might need you to ...
...

Let me know what you think.

:o You took a peek in my real life  -   are you a spy? (*searching for the surveillance camera*)   :o

Just making sure you're paying attention.

[Dualnames]

I would love to do any:
CODING.
WRITING.

And I have no idea where to find the tasks needed. So yeah, anyhow, here's my declaration of interest.

LET THE ZERG RUSH BEGIN!!

edit: I just realized the first post was edited..mhh..anyhow. Since I can't remove my post, the offer still exists. 

[Tabata]

And I have no idea where to find the tasks needed. So yeah, anyhow, here's my declaration of interest.

You may look out for Barons # Reply 43
and  especially # Reply 104 to watch the already assimilated reserved and free jobs

come to mama 

[kaputtnik]

I will contribute music worth 1h, 00min, 00 seconds. In looped form. And ask my brother to do the same.

This way we will already have the net worth of 2h, 00min, 00seconds of music - that's awesome! You are a genius, Baron!

[Baron]

And I have no idea where to find the tasks needed. So yeah, anyhow, here's my declaration of interest.

 Yes, I can see how this has become unwieldy with the work list now buried in the middle of the thread.  Perhaps I'll just copy & paste it to the first post so that it will be more visible.

EDIT: Available Job information originally found in post #104 has been permanently moved to the First Post of the Thread.

  @Yarooze -I like the sprite and the exercise yard.  We will have to edit the cage a bit to create gaps large enough for the probe to pass through (maybe just a hole?) -otherwise I think it's great!  Thank you for being so prompt.

  @Hudders -This revised draft is much better, IMO: the jokes are there, but more subtle ("Stay boy!  Stay!") and I like the twist of the brain transplant.  And speaking of twists: Tabata is the evil doctor?!?  :o.  I never saw that coming....

  @Pinback -Awesome!  Just.... awesome!  Floating is great problem solving -good work all around.

  @Kaputtnik -Thanks for volunteering!  When we get a rough beta together we'll get you two to play through and come up with some ideas.

Edit Again: We have 30 Volunteers on the books.  We're halfway to our goal!

Edit Yet Again: While updating the Available Jobs I saw no one had grabbed the back view of the Merrick sprite so I've just slapped one together.  I hope it is acceptable:

[Hudders]

Am I allowed to do something else? Or should I just rest on my laurels? 

Baron, you might want to add "Foley Artist" to the list of jobs, (i.e. someone who will create / source the sound effects).

[Scarab]

Side Views


Front walkcycle still to come, Never done a back before, so I'll have a go at that one if I have time.

Notes:

• I initially hoped to do a more vampire-y walk, with 'Thriller hands' and everything, but I thought that would get annoying to watch after a while, woulf have been more difficult to reach a pleasing result.
  
• I'm not sure how well the legs are reading, they may have to be lightened before the animations are imported into the game.
  

Thank's Baron for the back sprite.

[Baron]

Side Views


Front walkcycle still to come, Never done a back before, so I'll have a go at that one if I have time.

Notes:

• I initially hoped to do a more vampire-y walk, with 'Thriller hands' and everything, but I thought that would get annoying to watch after a while, woulf have been more difficult to reach a pleasing result.
  
• I'm not sure how well the legs are reading, they may have to be lightened before the animations are imported into the game.
  

Thank's Baron for the back sprite.

Nice!  That's pretty good for an hour -or did you go over?  Anyway, I think simple is best, so I believe you made the right decision.  I see what you mean about the legs: we'll see how they look in-game and if they're not reading well then we'll have to have someone lighten them.  And maybe take the far side of the cape down a pixel when he twists away, but this is just nit-picking: great job!

@Hudders: if some job has gone unclaimed that means

• a) we don't have qualified volunteers for that task yet
• b) volunteers with the appropriate skills haven't had the time or haven't looked at the available jobs list, or
• c) no one wants to do that job.

So if you're interested in doing more by all means sign up for another task.  Remember once your hour is complete you are in no way obligated to spend more time, but if you're keen... go for it!

[Tabata]

Well, I tried to do the second scientist in the same style, as the first, that they fit together:


first one from yarooze:               his colleague (if you like):
                                        

[Corby]

My contribution will probably be finished tonight. I thought a limited palette would be easy, but it's more challenging!

[Hudders]

Well, I tried to do the second scientist in the same style, as the first, that they fit together:


first one from yarooze:               his colleague (if you like):
                                        

Hehe. I like the beard.

I suppose, since they are both facing forward, they should be in the foreground chatting, (and doing science) and be oblivious to Merrick sneaking around behind them? In which case whoever's drawing the lab should include a bench or something for them to stand behind.

[Tabata]

...
Hehe. I like the beard.

I suppose, since they are both facing forward, they should be in the foreground chatting, (and doing science) and be oblivious to Merrick sneaking around behind them? In which case whoever's drawing the lab should include a bench or something for them to stand behind.

This is so much fun, that I continued my exercises using „Redbeard“.
                                                                                     x 2

Maybe one of the other views is fitting better for the scene but it's my very first one ever like this, so there might be something to correct before it is usable.  :

[Wyz]

I can't happen to think but he looks like Van Gogh . But it like them!

[Wonkyth]

Unfortunately, directly after signing up for the puzzle design jobthing, I recieved my next load of assignments, and have been avoiding getting sidetracked.
I'll have to drop the job.

[Corby]

I'll post what I have so far and hope I didn't break too many rules:





I don't have the "robot probe" drawn. I'm not sure if that's a sprite or not. I do have the bunsen burner and the bonsai tree in there however.

I also left that large vat empty, in case there's room for some cyborg creature there.

If anyone wants to tinker with this, go right ahead!

EDIT: Great job on everyone's backgrounds and sprites so far!