[WINNER ANNOUNCED] SPRITE JAM: Maniac Mansion Restrain-ia

Started by Eggie, Wed 09/12/2015 23:51:28

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Eggie


Your challenge is to create a sprite to the same specs Gary Winick had to work to when creating the very first versions of the Maniac Mansion cast.

Rules:


You must use exactly three colours or less not including the background

As the lovely Syd models for us here; technical limitations mean his hair, shoes and shirt all have to be the same shade of yellow and his skintone has to double up as an outline for his arm.

The colours must be in a similar range to this shitty palette:

I couldn't get a 100% authentic one but AGI's seems similar enough to my untrained eyes at least

The sprites must be usable for a 320x200 game with doubled-up horizontal pixels

Essentially Maniac Mansion is a 160x200 game that's been stretched out across the screen. You need to think of every pixel you put down as a rectangular block. You see how Razer's eyebrows have a subtle one-pixel slope in the version on the left? That effect's not possible on the right version.
EDIT FOR HOPEFULLY LESS GARBAGE EXPLANATION:

The guy on the left was drawn normally, a 1x1 grid of squares that make up an image. The guy on the right was drawn using a grid of 2x1 rectangles. In other words every 'pixel' he's drawn with is actually two pixels of the same colour placed side by side. I hope this makes it clearer what I'm going for?
If you don't get this rule please feel free to ignore it, stand strong with Grok, reclaim this contest for the people and overthrow my tyranny.


----


These limitations are a lot of keep in your head at once but a fantastic way of creating art like this is with AGI Studio, if you download that and click the 'new view' button then the colours and doublewide pixels will be set up for you and you can just focus on creating the most appealing sprite you can.
I've used it to make a bunch of goofy gifs and such this year and it's lots of fun. Promise!

Your sprite can be a Mansion Kid, Monster, Totally original character, Character from a different franchise, Inanimate object, ANIMATE(d) object, Whatever you like. No restrictions at all on theme or content. Just so long as you stay within the technical specs.

Winners announced on the 16th. Have fun with it, peeps!

selmiak


Amayirot Akago

Weelllllllll now, here's a contest that's totally in line with my skills :grin: I'll be sure to come up with something for this.
Quote from: CaptainDMy suspicion is that an accident, probably caused by a lightning storm and a mad professor, resulted in Amayirot's brain becoming inextricably linked to the databases behind MobyGames and LemonAmiga.


Eggie

#4
Quote from: Grok on Thu 10/12/2015 19:23:54
[imgzoom]http://orig13.deviantart.net/aa31/f/2015/344/b/1/sprite_challenge_by_pekj-d9jo3kz.gif[/imgzoom]

Groook, that's so beautiful and you used the three-colours really well but it wasn't made with doublewide pixels.
Shit, I was really worried I hadn't explained that well enough. I've added a little illustration to the first post that might make it clearer but tbh if it's too hard for people to get I'm up for removing that restriction, especially if keeping it means losing the only entrant. How do people feel?


Cassiebsg

There are those who believe that life here began out there...

Grok

Quote from: Eggie on Thu 10/12/2015 20:05:24
--- but it wasn't made with doublewide pixels. ---


Sorry. Apparently I didn't read the instructions well enough and hadn't any idea what doublewide pixels were anyway (I understand it now, but still don't get why anyone would want to do that.:confused: Is there a technical reason for doing things that way?)

Any way I don't mind participating outside the competition.

Eggie

Quote from: Grok on Thu 10/12/2015 21:52:24
(I understand it now, but still don't get why anyone would want to do that.:confused: Is there a technical reason for doing things that way?)

As far as I understand it proper 320x200 just ate up too much memory.
And, uh, why would we want to do that? Because... it's... fun?? (I don't know, it's fun for me)

Kumpel



That isn't right either then. Too many colors. But maybe you are just practicing? ???

I'm gonna try it too :)


Scavenger

DID SOMEONE MENTION ULTRA-RESTRICTED SPRITING?

I'm on like Donkey Kong for that!!

[imgzoom]https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/50882197/art/MM_Dai_Nell.PNG[/imgzoom]

3 colors + transparency from the EGA palette, doublewide pixels, big heads, I think I can deal with that. Wow, compared to the MM style, AGI's native stuff is downright generous in it's form. The only thing that this style has going for it is the fact that the sprites are about 32x72 pixels in size, so nice and big.

For anyone who's interested, Maniac Mansion was originally programmed for the C64, and they wanted scrolling rooms, but you can't scroll the high-res (single width, monochrome) graphics without the engine slowing to a crawl. So they opted for the 160x200 mode, which is hella ugly, but fast.

I may do some more later, if I can work out how to eke more out of this style.

Gilbert

Nice topic! And quite creative in using an AGI tool for drawing original SCUMM sprites. :grin:
Unfortunately I probably won't enter as I'm too lazy busy ATM.

Anyway, lemme spam this space with some of my old joke images: :=
[imgzoom]http://i488.photobucket.com/albums/rr249/gilbot/bj5agi.png[/imgzoom]
[imgzoom]http://i488.photobucket.com/albums/rr249/gilbot/AGIOS.png[/imgzoom]
(They are, of course, not entries as they don't fit the SCUMM requirements, but they're genuine AGI projects, just without any interactions.)

Eggie

#13
Amélie your lil' Geralt is the cutest dang thing and Scavengeeer you followed everything, you did it all, you maniac! The Heatwave guys look amazing!

Grok

Quote from: Eggie on Thu 10/12/2015 22:14:44
---
And, uh, why would we want to do that?
---

Well no, my question was intended as "why would they want to do that?". That is, what was the technical purpose of using that way of drawing.
I think I have figured it out during the day. The images are to be drawn at full width but at half height compared to how they are to be seen in the game. In game they are stretched out in the up/down direction and the double pixel becomes a four pixel square. Is that it?

Kumpel

#15
No, it was like Scavenger said:

QuoteFor anyone who's interested, Maniac Mansion was originally programmed for the C64, and they wanted scrolling rooms, but you can't scroll the high-res (single width, monochrome) graphics without the engine slowing to a crawl. So they opted for the 160x200 mode, which is hella ugly, but fast.

But does that mean, they had to draw it with normal pixels in 160x200? That must have been really tough to figure out the right width for each sprite/object/whatever...

Tabata

I wasn't sure if you wanted any kind of character in the old style or a restrain from a known Maniac Mansion character (started before your last edit cleared this). But there is no way in not participating here because it was MM that triggered my addiction on p&c adventure games. :cool: So â€" to be on a safer side â€" I chose our lovely Edna (the Edisons didn't even have their skin colour 'correct' back in the time). (wtf)


sprites of Edna Edison
3 colours from the given palette
double pixels
fitting in game (hmm â€" should fit (roll) )

[imgzoom]http://fs5.directupload.net/images/user/151211/duh4don3.png[/imgzoom]

Since her skin is not that nice/clear on our forums background colour I also added some backgrounds with it included.
Thanks to the nice colleagues from Maniac Mansion Mania and their starter packs (of nearly everything) I didn't need to search long. :kiss:

[imgzoom]http://fs5.directupload.net/images/user/151211/dublt2oq.gif[/imgzoom]

Cassiebsg

Here's my Colonial Warrior, from original Battlestar Galactica... always wanted one! :-D

[IMGzoom]http://i725.photobucket.com/albums/ww258/Cassiebsg/Misc/spritejamagi.png[/IMGzoom]
There are those who believe that life here began out there...

Jim Reed

#18
Pighty Mirate!


EDIT: Edited the image. Now it's edited.


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