Adventure Game Studio

This time, we're going in a slightly different direction. Instead of making your average in-game background, you get to make your average in-game map screen. You can do overview screens of cities, islands, castles, a moon crater, an apartment building or whatever you like.

Restriction: Anything that fits with AGS is fine.

Voting will start on Feb 24th.
And now: get to work and have fun :D

cheers
nihilyst

I approve this idea.

nice theme...working on something, but don't know if I'll make the deadline.

ps. All of you, grab your pen and draw something so I won't win by default if I submit a yellow square. ;-)

Don't worry, I've also been working on something. Probably coming out tomorrow or day after.

Our hero and heroine escape to a tropical island...and then their problems REALLY begin.
(http://fc03.deviantart.net/fs70/f/2012/054/5/f/off_the_map_by_oraxon-d4qofuy.jpg)

Quote from: oraxon on Thu 23/02/2012 08:44:51
Our hero and heroine escape to a tropical island...and then their problems REALLY begin.

nice  :)

Great topic. Love map screens for some reason.

Amazing one, oraxon!

(http://i.imgur.com/aGZvC.png)

I must chip in to say, I think "Paddleboats" is a hilarious.

Thanks gameboy! Sharp, classy map you painted there.
Thanks Misj', looking forward to yours!
:) Thanks Ali. Just saw your video from Adventure-X, your game's gonna rock.

Great entries so far. Is someone still working on something?

Quote from: nihilyst on Fri 24/02/2012 20:09:37
Great entries so far. Is someone still working on something?

Will be entring in a few minutes...

So here's my entry...I wanted to take a different take on the overview map than the other entries, so I decided on an actual map overview for the part of the story that would take place in the hotel...it still fits within the rules :)

Background-story: a young scientist is stuck at a conference in a tropical resort and has to find a way to spend his time in an absolute non-science related manner without his professor - whom he told he was sick - catching up on him. Yes, it's a total rip of Ferris Bueller's day off...so there's probably going to be a singing routine somewhere in the game...aloha doctor.

(http://i1196.photobucket.com/albums/aa412/misj1270/Misj_BB_20120224.jpg)

I decided to go for a hand-drawn on-a-budget cartoon look...so some of the roughness is intentional. Some of it is due to lack of time (yeah, sorry about that). Also, the goal of the lighting was to create a mood and focus on the map rather than an accurate representation of physics or logic (who in their right mind would make an exotic hotel-lobby this dark?)

In-game the red dot would point to the player's current location, and the plant would be substituted for different objects depending on where you are (jukebox, hand-dryer, etc). And if I had a little more time I would have finished this rough animation of the character (my apologies for the file-size, my usual software had a weird glitch):

(http://i1196.photobucket.com/albums/aa412/misj1270/Misj_BB_20120224_animated.gif)

Oh no! Deadline is today?
I had hoped to use this as a good excuse to dig up and old project and start re-drawing the concept arts into actual game-useable maps, but I have no time until maybe sunday! :'(

Quote from: WHAM on Fri 24/02/2012 20:43:41
Oh no! Deadline is today?
I had hoped to use this as a good excuse to dig up and old project and start re-drawing the concept arts into actual game-useable maps, but I have no time until maybe sunday! :'(

So then let's just extend the deadline until monday :D

Oh no! Now I have to throw something together. ::)

Very nice Misj!

Quote from: nihilyst on Fri 24/02/2012 21:04:04
So then let's just extend the deadline until monday :D

That would be awesome! I hope it's not cheating if I use an old reference picture for the redraw?

I can post both the old picture (higher res and antialias) and the new one (pixellated AGS-appropriate look) for comparison too, if that's okay.

Hi everybody!

The more, the merrier.

Kinda crappy half-an-hour spill on the canvas, but there you go:

(http://i43.tinypic.com/2mfgev9.jpg)

...and yeah now I realise it's not even a map, per se. Tried to do like a town center thing and forgot the assignment ten minutes in.

misj, gameboy and oraxon are my favourites so far.  :D

UPDATE: This next one took quite awhile. Couple of hours or so. Little bit different style.

(http://i40.tinypic.com/ea2jb9.jpg)

Sorry, my MAGS project has taken all my time and I won't be able to do the picture in time if I want to get the game done. :(
Sorry guys!

(http://i265.photobucket.com/albums/ii203/Kastchey/lf-map-overview.png)
A map of an area within Catskill Mountains with the dreadful House Martense in the center.

Composition partially based on an incredibly charming picture  (http://i265.photobucket.com/albums/ii203/Kastchey/catskill-mt.png)of a real area (or so I read) within the mountain range.

Time to vote. Thanks to all participants.

The voting categories are:
Idea -
Atmosphere -
Design -
Composition -
Functionality -
Technique -

If you want, you can comment on your favorite backgrounds.

Voting will end on March 1st.

Idea - Misj
Atmosphere - Puzzler
Design - Kastchey
Composition - Kastchey
Functionality - gameboy
Technique - Kastchey

Can just any old person vote? If so:

Idea - Misj'
Atmosphere - Kastchey
Design - gameboy
Composition - gameboy
Functionality - oraxon
Technique - Kastchey

I feel like Misj's is, on the face of it, the most accomplished of these, but I'm drawn to the maps drawn by Kastchey and gameboy the most.

Katschey has effectively recreated the warmth of the photograph in the pixels of his map, though I'm not sure how functional those text boxes are. I would like to see a version without them, or maybe in the game, they would pop up as you hovered over the hotspots of the different locations.

Gameboy's map has somehow achieved a great amount of detail for the amount of pixels he allowed himself. I especially like the parking lot in the bottom right for some reason. I especially like that this map could be diegetic, like the map of the town in Full Throttle, with a character sprite running around in it. As a minor critique, I wonder if the color of the sand on the beach might not be reversed -- sand drenched with water from the waves being darker than that dried by the sun.

Oraxon's made a nice overhead map, all the locations easy to see because of the labels. I wish there were a greater range of values, so that my eye were drawn more to the locations themselves. I love the place names.

Misj's map is especially interesting, because it's a map that would, in essence, represent a number of maps with slight changes (the dot). As I said, it's quite well done, and probably deserves to win, but subjectively, I'm drawn to Katschey and gameboy's maps more.

Someone has to be the least favorite, and unfortunately for me in this round, that's Puzzler's map, which is a bit too photorealistic for my tastes, which is, again, completely subjective. I actually really like the first draft, the overview map of the town square from a viewpoint only slightly above the roofline. I wish you'd stuck with that one.

Take all of these opinions with the grain of salt that represents the fact that I've never drawn a game background in my life!

Idea - Oraxon.
Yeah, I know...a top-view of an island might not be the most original idea of the bunch, but I just really like all the up-lifting places we can visit. Take any of these places and imagine their design...yes, I can just envision the dark glooming depressive look of the Misery Canyon (Orax, if you win, please make the next contest one where we have to draw any of these places...)
Atmosphere - Puzzler.
I must say that I'm not that fond of the style...but...it does evoke a unhygienic gritty (WWII-like) feeling. I don't know if that's a good thing, but it was the only one that did.
Design - gameboy.
Everything is clear to the viewer; even without tags the other entries had, there is no pixel-hunting.
Composition - Kastchey.
The things about the composition that I like best are directly derived from his inspiration-painting. But good inspiration has never been a bad thing...
Functionality - [empty]
I think they're all perfectly functional within a game. Sure, they'd be different kind of games, and the background would function differently with all entries (despite having the same goal), but I don't see any of them working better of worse. So I'll skip this one...
Technique - gameboy.
Personally I'm a hand-drawn high-res kind-of-guy...but I feel this entry handled the chosen style best.

Idea - Misj
Atmosphere - Misj
Design -  gameboy
Composition - Kastchey
Functionality - Oraxon
Technique - Kastchey

Misj, have you thought about making this into a real game?

Quote from: Cyrus on Tue 28/02/2012 16:16:52Misj, have you thought about making this into a real game?

I always like to come up with a backstory when I draw. It helps me to broaden the character of the piece. But...I've had a very stressful two years (which was also one of the reasons I stepped in here only sporadically), and a lot of energy was drained from me. So I had a lot of trouble finding the inspiration for drawing. Before that time, I was working on a game-idea, and the basic premise is still there...but it needs to be reworked a lot. I would like to go back to that story, and maybe I will...but not yet. First I just need to fire up the drawing-engine again.

As for this particular story: I would love to play it, but it's not the story I would write myself (however,  if anyone else is going to make it, I have no problem being the scientific adviser on it...that would put my title to good use). :)

Oh...and you forgot to vote. ;)

Idea - oraxon
Atmosphere - Misj
Design - Misj
Composition - Puzzler
Functionality - Puzzler
Technique - gameboy

Eric, here you go (http://i265.photobucket.com/albums/ii203/Kastchey/map-overview-notabs.png) :)

Beautiful! Thank you!

Idea - Misj'.
Atmosphere - Puzzler. Makes me imagine a "Reilly: Ace of Spies" World War I adventure.
Design - gameboy.
Composition - gameboy.
Functionality - Misj'. I like the way it would function.
Technique - Misj'. I dig that style and the anim.

real glad everyone pitched in, it was fun to see them all.

Idea - Misj'
Atmosphere - Kastchey
Design - Kastchey
Composition - oraxon
Functionality - oraxon
Technique - Misj'

Hey, thanks for participating and voting. We had a bunch of different approaches to the theme and many different styles. Great :D

And we have our winner: It's Misj' with 11 votes, followed by Kastchey with 10 and gameboy with 9 votes.

Congrats, Misj'. Your turn.

Quote from: nihilyst on Thu 01/03/2012 15:02:55
And we have our winner: It's Misj' with 11 votes, followed by Kastchey with 10 and gameboy with 9 votes.

Congratul...wait...what? - I demand a recount!  ;D

Recount done. You still win ;D

Grats Misj!

And thanks nihilyst for the awesome theme.