Without Rome (UPDATE 3/26/05) Sprite Artist Need

[Pizzaman]

Hi everyone,

I am producing a game set in the late Roman Era.

Synopsis Summary: Claudius is a technically savy Roman Legionaire.Ã,  He is perhaps the walking icon of Roman civilization, he is able to fix things, solve problems, and is a great asset to his legion.

After 6 long years of fighting under his general, the legion have conquered many lands as they march further north.Ã,  The burden of war is upon him, so much fighting and blood is beginning to get to him.Ã, 

In the events that will take place, the general's campaign will reach an end as he sets foot in a northern celtic countryside.Ã,  He asks Claudius to survey the land, set up marker posts for troop advancement in this strange land.

During thisÃ,  little assignment, he is captured by a tribe.Ã,  Taken to a foreign location, he is treated with hospitality.Ã,  He will encounter strange rituals, resolve hundreds of years of tribal conflict all in the meantime, struggle to either warn these people about an invasion or stay quiet and let the might of Rome crush its final territory.

[UPDATE] 03/26/05

Well its been over a month now.Ã,  I am still working on this game, drawing the backgrounds like crazy.Ã,  Apparently all my friends who agreed to help is either too lazy or is playing World of Warcraft, thus I haven't gotten materials from them at all.Ã,  One of my friends was suppose to draw the backgrounds for the first area, after 3 months, he hasn't even produced 1 yet.Ã, 

Enough ranting.Ã,  You will see 2 new background art below.Ã,  I am almost done drawing the forest and shrine area.Ã,  Once that is done, i'll have to draw the Roman camp myself.Ã,  I then have to draw animation sprites for other characters.Ã,  The puzzles are all scripted for the forest and shrine area.Ã, 

So ya, this project is still alive.Ã,  If anyone wish to help me with some character sprites, or just sprites of stationary objects, please PM me.Ã,  Thanks!



[UPDATE] 02/05/05

DEMO BELOW: I haven't finished the walking up and down animation, so character will look a little weird.Ã,  The push and pull buttons are not working at the moment.
right click and save as

Snatch the Puzzle Demo here.Ã,  Let me know if the puzzle is good, too difficult, illogical... You'll know when you successfully passed the puzzle.Ã,  If you fail, you get turned to the beginning forest entrance.


[UPDATE] 02/05/05

Just finished on the javelin throw mini-game.Ã,  Added nice ambient sounds to forest area, and moody background animations.Ã,  I am really trying to aim for a big game here with lots of locations.Ã,  But this doesn't mean that the locations will have bad quality.Ã,  I will try to soak lots of hidden mini-games, and intricate puzzles in each general area.

I also just decided to make the title "Without Rome"
Expect a playable demo soon.

[UPDATE] 2/2/05

Alright, just finished programming the first puzzle in the game.Ã,  Its gonna be a pure logical sequence puzzle.

As for the backgrounds, they are getting pumped out in a steady pace.Ã,  Thank god for my Wacom tablet, or else this would take forever.Ã, 




Outskirts of a forest



Interior of a Roman camp



Forest Shrine Entrance (UPDATE 2/1/05)



More forests!



Temple entrance

Alright I think that will be enough screenshots for awhile.

Progress:

Rooms 5%
Story 20%
Scripting 15%
Combat System 80%
Animation 5%
Puzzles 5%

Please check back here within a few weeks for an update and hopefully a playable demo.Ã,  Feedback and suggestions is much appreciated!

-Pizzaman

[eddy]

Well, I won't say that the background or characters are nice, but the GUI is cool.
/* Modification : Now I'll say that they are beautiful! */
But in fact, I' really interested in your combat system.Ã,  Do you plan to do a plug-in with this system, or is there a post where you describe how you will do it?

[Darth Mandarb]

Looks pretty good! 

Good luck with finishing it!

[Pizzaman]

Eddy:

The combat system is fairly simple actually.  You got two choices, attack or defend, and depending on when you do what, you can win the fight easily.

My friends and I are talking about making it more complicated and interactive.  However, that is not the main focus of the game right now.  We are trying to create an immersive enviornment and interesting characters.

-Pizzaman

[Haddas]

I'm looking forward to this game. any chance of you posting any animations for me to drool over?

[Pizzaman]

Hey Haddas,

Well I have been working on the main character walk cycle.Ã,  I've never done animation before so bare with me.Ã,  THis is what I got.Ã,  I think it either needs more frames or just getting the frames it self right.Ã,  My biggest challenge is keeping the lighting consistent.



-Pizzaman

[splat44]

Nice Graphics,

Good Luck.

[Pizzaman]

02/05/05:

Puzzle Demo released.  Please check original post for download.

-Pizzaman

[Candle]

Looks good .
But , the walk cycle to the left has one pixel showing in a frame . and it sounds like he is walking in a hall when it should be dirt .

[Pizzaman]

Thanks for the feedback.  I will try to get better sound samples.  So what about the forest puzzle... did anyone find it to be interesting?

-Pizzaman

[Neil Dnuma]

To be honest, I didn't get the puzzle. I read the signs and tried following them, then walking the opposite direction, I also tried following the shadow, but were eventually sent back. I should have done more thinking. It's just this thing - I hate mazes. Really. And especially when there's only one screen repeating (in KQ2 there's at least three or four), and when you fail, you feel you're teleported, because ending up there doesn't make sense. If it's an interior, minimalist sortof room repeating, it can work, but in a forest there's not that repeating pattern. If you really want to produce tons of believable rooms simply in some sort of maze, maybe you could have a more general forest ground as a backdrop, then RawDraw some trees and paths to make more variation?

The backdrops are really beautiful and the interface is smooth.

About the main character, I think the animation is a bit messy, esp. the skirt but overall it's not bad. I'd advice turning on "Anti-glide" mode though, with the sound (as Candle has pointed out) and gliding I got a slight "train" impressionÃ,  Also, scaling him up (as in the first screen) made him a bit too blocky.

The ambition-level for this project seems very high, and I really hope the game gets finished. However, if this is your first game, the general advice around is "to start small". I can speak for myself: I started making this huge game, put a lot of half-decent stuff into it, endless pages of crappy code, did things over and over, and eventually gave up. Then I made a small game, had it done in three weeks, and really learned a lot. Now I'm back on a huge project, and everything works out pretty much as I want to. But please, do as you wish, this was only my experienceÃ, 

[Pizzaman]

Thanks for the advice!Ã,  Ya I actually need some help with the animations.Ã, 

This is my first game and you're right, there are lotta plans for it and ambition.Ã,  Maybe you are right to concentrate on better gameplay features than to make tons of room mediocre.Ã,  I'll let the others know, and we can change our strategy.Ã,  Thanks for the feedback, it enlightened me.

[edit] Hey Neil Dnuma, I played your Zooreal game.  Its awesome!  Great premise and good puzzles.


-Pizzaman

[Kinoko]

Oooh, this looks great. I love the "washy" look of the graphics. Your GUI's very cool, too.

[Fizzii]

The backgrounds are great!Ã, 

Just as a suggestion, I'd work on the walking animation a bit more. I don't think his body should swing from side to side quite that much (the torso should move a bit, but not as exaggerated as you have there).

Some good work here, I look forward to seeing it finished.

[Secret Fawful]

What did u make those bgs with???

[splat44]

Great Demo,

I cannot see logic in puzzle.

So far, I can see shield and signs but I cannot interact with.
A certainly animal is seen two time and I cannot still cannot see the logic.

[Pizzaman]

Alright, thanks for the feedbacks!

As for the puzzle.Ã,  The animal really has nothing to do with it.Ã,  It is only an indentation that you will get mauled if you mess up [final version].Ã, 

If it's an interior, minimalist sortof room repeating, it can work, but in a forest there's not that repeating pattern. If you really want to produce tons of believable rooms simply in some sort of maze, maybe you could have a more general forest ground as a backdrop, then RawDraw some trees and paths to make more variation?

I have taken your advice into consideration and will definetely produce more variety backdrops.

Technically, its not a maze really... you cannot just simply guess, unless you get all five directions correct in a row.Ã,  The only clue really are the signs at the beginning, and plus the position of the sunrise.

What did you make those bgs with???

I just used Photoshop and my pen and tablet.

I have gotten tons of feedback on the animation.Ã,  Animation is not our strongest characteristics, I will most likely request help from members of this forum in the future.Ã,  I'll let you guys know in the original post when we need help.Ã,  Thanks for the support guys.

-Pizzaman

[Pizzaman]

Help needed, check first post for info. 

Plus 2 new background art to keep the hope alive.

-Pizzaman

[ildu]

I love the trees in the first pic.

To help keep the shadings when animating, divide the limbs, head and torso into different layers in a graphics program. That way you can change their positions and sizes as you would in a 3d program.

[Shane 'ProgZmax' Stevens]

(I know this isn't the critics lounge, but he did ask for help).

Here, I made a quick edit to the animation for you.

original edit

Some things I changed are

1.  Reduced the frame count by 2
2.  Made a new head
3.  Attempted (with mixed results) to clear up the absolutely TERRIBLE dithering and black pixel blobs that riddled this animation..I'm not sure if this was your fault or merely a result of the tablet, but it made my job extremely difficult (and will make your life hell).  My advice is that whatever method you used to make this animation, change it.  This isn't to be mean, it's simply because it will bring you nothing but problems later on.  There were blocks of white and black all over this image, parts were blended (while some were perfectly crisp) and that just makes your job a hundred times more difficult.
4.  I redrew the walk cycle to make it appear more natural, and I reduced the amount he turns each way.

You really did a good job with the armor and the general layout, but the sheer number of dithered colors and artifacts detract from it.  I only cleaned up the sprite a little, and there is much left to do, like reducing the colors more and clearing out the rest of the black pixels.  I hope this helps.