Background Blitz - Voting starts September 4th

[Opo Terser]

---Background Blitz---
August 23rd - September 4th


The Topic:[/i]
The inside of an old west style saloon - including some sort of nude painting above the bar.

Size Limit:[/i]
320x240

No other rules.

[Fine Artist]

Title: After Hours.
Inspired by the painting on the wall, the saloon girl strikes a pose.
Enjoy!

[Corey]

lol really nice, i wish i could make such a nice animation 

[Tuomas]

Lol, yes, she moves smoothly

[Fine Artist]

Hey thanks, Corey.
Anyone can do it eventually, just follow your heart and keep having fun.

Tuomas, the saloon girl's enchanted bra gives her teleportation powers.Ã,  This is actually a very accurate portrayal of the on goings in this saloon late one night.

[Stefano]

Weee! Saloon fun. 

No teleporting ladies dancing on mine. Just two dudes, wishing they had one. 

[Neutron]

it's not a fancy joint, just an ordinary waterin' hole.

[Chicky]

Quick Neutron! It needs nudity!

[Neutron]

it has nudity it's just subtle.

[loominous]

Another modest watering hole, featuring even subtler nudity:

x2


I hasted through the sketch stage resulting in poor composition and perspective and didn't have time to add enough details to make it interesting and convincing.

Edit: Added entry

[Neutron]

might as well...it looks as though opo may have forgotten about us. 

[TheYak]

Loominus's is very professional and - in my case - jaw-dropping (It is, however, more art and less background, particularly with low contrast darkness even on this painfully bright Mac LCD) .   Neutron's has a nice, gritty, old-fashioned feel to it that makes me happy, and its daylight filtering in as well as consistency of style wins me over . 

I vote Neutron (unless his nudity is too subtle and disqualifies him, then Loominus). 

[Traveler]

I like Neutron's image a lot, too, but I vote for Loominus.... his drawing is just mind-blowing.  :o

[Fine Artist]

Lots of great entrees make this a tough one for me.Ã,  However, my vote is for Stefano because his saloon inspires my imagination.Ã,  I also think there are a lot of nice details that would make it a fun room for an adventure game.Ã,  Examples are: What is in the barrel? What happens if I pull on the bull horn? Or what info will the customer at the table give me if I bought him a drink?Ã,  I can't complain about the naked lady portrait either.Ã,  Props to Neutron and looninous, your saloons do look phenomenal.

[Neutron]

though this time the bottom is cut off of loominous's image, i can actually see most of it.  my vote is for loominous. i would like to comment ( rant ), however, that the backgrounds seem to be getting less backgroundy (spartan, ready to be filled with sprites) and more fleshed out, with what would ordinarily be accomplished with sprites.  i would like to ask that people be more true to the mission here.   these are supposed to be usable backgrounds, not illustrations, or full scenes. 

[loominous]

I'll put my vote on Stefano's, though those white areas really annoy me, mainly because of it's nice layout.

the backgrounds seem to be getting less backgroundy (spartan, ready to be filled with sprites) and more fleshed out, with what would ordinarily be accomplished with sprites.Ã, 

I see your point, but I personally would draw the line at characters. If you look at the backgrounds of at least LEC games, they're usually quite crowded with objects to make the enviroments believeable and interesting, and only few of these are actually sprites added later on. I think one of the biggest flaws in amateur backgrounds is a kind of sparse theatre stage setting look with huge areas and few objects, which is why I liked Stefano's, though I think that those characters shouldn't have been included prior to an agreement on their implementation.

It is, however, more art and less background, particularly with low contrast darkness

I think with what AGS is capable of today people should be pushing the styles of game art further than what's done. If an old LEC sprite without any anti aliasing, brightness adjustment and color tinting would've been put into my background it would've clashed terribly, but with these it should work fine. Even the glare coming from the window works by adding it as a semi transparent object.

Games today have the potential of looking more or less like traditional animated movies and I hope more developers will snap out of the nostalgia and pursue styles that will intruige people outside the old school sphere.

[Sam.]

i really like looms, and thats why he's getting my vote. Of course i can see it as a bg, its got a floor hasn't it? Characters could walk around it and interact with it. Its not conventional, but its an awesome bg.

[Nacho]

Shit... I voted for Loomie many times because whereas some of you were not voting him "because he is too good and he allways win" I thought it was fair. But this time I preffer Neutron's and Stefano's, to be honest. As Neutron hasn't been voted so far and it might result as a silly vote then I'd go for Stefano's.

[Corey]

I vote for fine artist... i like his nice barchick 

[Privateer Puddin']

:O loominous

[Tuomas]

Stefano... the nude picture was most impressing in this one. And everything else

[Ubel]

I vote for loominous. That might not work as a bg in an adventure game very well, but darn it looks good!

[Fine Artist]

Whoo Hoo!Ã,  I got a vote!Ã,  Thanks.

[loominous]

I'm not sure where the skepsis about whether my background would work in a game comes from, but I added a testsprite to see how it could look and it seems ok to me:

Image at its original 640x400 res with a character (around 50 kb)

[Darth Mandarb]

loom - please make a game.

My vote is for loominous!

[Neutron]

i wasn't reffering to anyone specifically with my comment.Ã,  it is a trend that i have observed for some time.Ã,  many of these backgrounds don't seem to have alot of room for sprites, or to move about in.Ã,  this is my standard though, and i don't expect all participants to feel the same way, or for they who cast their votes to vote on anything other than what happens to suit their fancy.Ã,  such is the way with voting.

[ildu]

Loominous gets my vote as well. Isn't it time you wrote up a tutorial, Loom?

[voh]

Definitely Loominous!

[skw]

Loominous.

[Snarky]

The background by loominous is technically very good, but for whatever reason it doesn't make me want to play the (hypothetical) game.

I vote Stefano.

[Nacho]

NOTE: I see Loominous' bg perfectly effective as a BG . But this time I like most other ones.

[TheYak]

I'm not sure where the skepsis about whether my background would work in a game comes from, but I added a testsprite to see how it could look and it seems ok to me:

[Not necessarily correct judgement, but my "vibe" from it:]

My statement was less that it wasn't possible and more than it didn't seem conducive to a background.  It says less "saloon" to me and more abandoned room.  Maybe it's the moose head but the overall feeling is more of a small club (like a poker joint) like a moose lodge or something.  It seems claustrophobic and too intimate for chaotic drunkeness.   The low contrast and low brightness also mean that objects you placed in the room would either be out of place or difficult to see. 

If this were a cutscene wherein a bounty hunter hears about his prey from a barkeep closing up shop, then I take it all back - it'd be perfect.

[Floskfinger]

I vote Loominous.
It's a really great BG and I do not see any problem with it as a adventure game background.

[Paper Carnival]

I prefer Neutron's background. I vote for Neutron

[Stefano]

I think loominous' BG is the coolest. Really dramatically illuminated and all.
I would vote for his BG (if that'd possible, as I'm a contestant). I can't see why it couldn't be on a game.

[Neutron]

loominous i think you can safely make with the new topic.