Sprite Jam - Arabian Stars - Winner Announced!

Started by Misj', Tue 29/09/2009 13:28:53

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Misj'

One of my favourite stories by Scheherazade (One Thousand and One Nights) is the highly overlooked story commonly referred to as:

   
Arabian Stars


A long time ago, in a land far far away...

In this mind-boggling tale of adventure and romance, the young orphan Aladdin Skywalker meets the evil sorcerer Jafader (who passes himself off as the brother of Aladdin's late father). By means of trickery (and some magic), he convinces Aladdin to retrieve a seemingly worthless artefact that turns out to be a magical lamp in which a (cursed) Djoda lives.

Instead of handing it to the sorcerer, the young man decides to keep the artefact, and use the three wishes the Djoda is willing to grant him to win over the heart of the beautiful daughter (Leiaroulpadmedour - Leiaroul for short) of the Chinese emperor  whom he saw from the streets as she passed him by.

Aladdin's plan succeeds and they are about to marry when the evil sorcerer Jafader (appearing as Aladdin) kidnaps the girl and puts a curse on the city of Baghdad to keep everyone in...and the price for everyone's freedom is of course the lamp. The Djoda - who does not want to be a prisoner of he evil Jafader - tells Aladdin of a magical Scimitar of Light which would allow him to defeat the evil sorcerer and rescue his one true love.

Together with the pirate Solobad (whom he meets in a bar at the harbour) he escapes from the cursed city on the back of a giant falcon (with whom Solobad and Aladdin fly from one end of the country to the other). After many adventures they obtain the Scimitar, and return to Baghdad to face Jafader. During the final battle, Aladdin is severely wounded and survives only through the power of Leiaroul's love. Together, Aladdin, Leiaroul, Solobad, and the Djoda finally manage to defeat the sorcerer, and they trap him in Djoda's lamp (in exchange for the Djoda's freedom).

The story ends when Aladdin and Leiaroul marry, and Solobad leaves on his falcon in search for new adventures.




Draw any character from the Arabian Stars universe (in other words: a reinvention of characters from the StarWars-universe as if it were part of the 1001-nights universe* (early medieval middle-east or far-east setting)).

rules:
- Size: 1/4th of the screen Y-resolution = 1.80m (but your characters may be smaller or bigger)
- Colours: max 10 unique colours (this does not include anti-aliasing or shading/highlights for high-res images).
- Fun: try to have it!
obligatory:
- Create a name and a background story for the character telling us how they fit within the story above*...it will not influence your chances of winning, but I just like to read them.

The host (that's me) decides the winner, but multiple entries are allowed to increase your chances.

I usually (loosely) base my decision on the following criteria:
- quality: how well did your sprite turn out
- functionality: is it usable in a game (this includes can it be animated)
- personality: does the sprite have character
- creativity: how creative were you with the execution of your idea
- style: one style is not better than another; but I like it when people experiment with styles uncommon to them. It's not the most important criteria, but when it doubt it might help me decide.

this Jam will end October 4th

* It is not a requirement to use the story provided above as long as it fits somewhat within the 1001-nights universe. Also, there is no reason to feel that the character mentioned in this story are confined to the way I presented them...

Shane 'ProgZmax' Stevens

#1
I thought I'd see how far I could stretch 10 colors for a hi-res image and still have it look good, and who better to experiment with than....

DJODA!




The original Grand Vizier of Arabia, Djoda was responsible for taking Abban-Wan Kareem-bay and turning him into one of the greatest Battle Viziers, ushering in an age of peace and plenty never before known to the people of the desert sands.  Peace would not last long, however, when Abban-Wan came of the age to take on his own pupil, a young enterprising thief who would become the dreaded Jafader, thrice-cursed Vizier and the man ultimately responsible for Abban-Wan's death.  Seeking the secrets Abban-Wan never taught him, Jafader confronts Djoda and an epic battle ensues, with Djoda gaining the upper hand early on.  Jafader's mastery of illusion and trickery comes to his aid, however, and Djoda is gravely wounded.  Before Jafader can seize the old Vizier, Djoda casts a powerful spell that hides him inside a magic lamp and with his remaining strength conjures a great tornado to whisk him to safety.  As Djoda escapes, Jafader curses Djoda to remain inside the lamp until he is set free.

He could use more detail and work on his legs but I started to get bored :).

Crimson Wizard

Well, I am obviously not a great artist, but I thought it is a shame there's only one entry to this wonderful topic, so I decided to add my... one cent...

Me2Me2

NOTE: I was not sure what counts as "shading/hilightning" so I drawn 2 versions, left has 10 colours exactly (+ transparency), second has 6 base colours + 5 pairs of shade/highlight tints.




An amateur persian wizard who grew tired from his lazy wife's caprices, enchanted a simple jug, making it prepare meals on its own. After a while "do the dishes", "clean the table", "beat a carpet" and "repair broken stool" enchantements followed. This, however, did not stop the bitch to run away with a rich trader. Since the jug always reminded wizard about his wife, he then sold it to a junk dealer. It is impossible to tell how many owners did it change before Aladdin Skywalker got it into his posession...

Me2Me2 funny nickname originates in his inability to keep up with others when going somewhere in hurry. Desperately he will strain every bit of his enchanted body, but still produce only short jumps (what else can you expect from the jug?).
Imagine:
- Hey, buddies, let's go to the bar!
- Yeah!
- Yeah! Come on!
-..*jump*......*jump*....*jump*...................... me too!! me toooo!!



loominous

Crimson Wizard's entry gave me a last minute idea:



Having had his most priced possession stolen by some young jerk on a flying carpet, Uz, the jawadin merchant, scours the deserts in relentless pursuit to get his revenge, which, due to the pacifistic nature of most jawadin cultures, usually ends up just being a stern lecture on property rights. As he's always enjoyed riding his trusty camel, and since the chances of finding the culprit has gone dim, the trip has evolved into a longer vacation trip, and while he would never admit it, he often finds himself hoping that the scoundrel and magic lamp is long gone.
Looking for a writer

Evil

#4



Alando San Doonean is an old acquaintance of Solobad, both of whom fought in the Rebellion Battles. San Doonean now owns several major oil trades, and though no longer a politician, he has a great influence in his hometown of Fog City.

Wonkyth

I so this story...Although the full(non-kiddie) version, with the exception of Sinbad, is kinda just disguised erotica. :P

Anyway, Damn annoyed my PC chose this week to pack it in, as I wish I could have entered.
"But with a ninja on your face, you live longer!"

Misj'

#6
One thing I wanted to share with you before we part the world of Aladdin Skywalker: the theme of this Jam originated from an idea I had back somewhere in 2003 for a MAGS-game that I never made...the only thing that did see the light of day of the first draft of the theme-song to this marvellous adventure. And now it's time of the part of these competitions that I dread the most: I have to make a decision as to who's sprite I like/consider the best.

I loved the diversity in the four sprites, and each have their own strengths:
ProgZmax: I think you made great use of the additional resolution in this piece. The little details in his hand, the wrinkles in his face. I particularly like his goatee where you managed to make it a logical complementation to a character whose looks we are all familiar with.
Crimson Wizard: Probably the simplest design of all the entries...but simplicity in design isn't a bad thing. I also think this entry most required the back-story to understand, but I really liked the whole 'fantasia'-broom-scene-like, and it was a great way to mix the magic of the 1001-night world with the technological creatures of StarWars. I am extremely curious how Me2Me2 would move by the way.
Loominous: The first thing I really can't resist saying is this: camels are amblers (I hope that the correct English word...It's 'telganger' in Dutch). It's a common mistake to use a horse's walk for camel-animation...but for some reason it always annoys me; probably because it doesn't feel like a camel any more. That being said, Uz looks great, the expression of the camel is near perfect, and the Jawadin make a great addition to the story.
Evil: It's a nice and clean design...plus I like animated smoke. A little shading on his cape and turban might make it even better, but it's not at all required.

Four nice - and really different - entries that all embodied perfectly what I was aiming for; and I think they all excel in at least one of my criteria-categories (ProgZ had in my opinion the highest quality, Evil was the most functional, Loominous had most personality, and Crimson's execution of his idea was - in my opinion - the most creative)...so deciding a winner was tough. But after looking at the entries there was one where my eye lingered just a little longer...

Evil, you're this weeks winner!

To you befalls the honour of hosting the next SpriteJam

WHAM

#7
Ahahahaha! I spotted this about an hour ago, just looked at the other posts, got an idea and decided to post.
After drawing the pic and writing this, I realized that today is the October 6:th and that I'm two days late already!

Heck! Here is the sprite I made, anyway. I was supposed to write a better story, but seeing as I'm already late, I'll pass. Next time I'll try to be on time. =)



The Jawadouines travel in groups, scavenging the desert for what is left of the many caravans that the ever-shifting sands have swallowed in the centuries. Not much is known of this short and strange men, as they are hardly ever seen by anyone else than the few traders that aquire trinkets and jewels in exchange for water and supplies.

EDIT: Oh! I forgot to mention: I used a pic of a Jawa from star wars as reference, so I guess I also cheated, as the sprite is anything but original! Sorry!
Wrongthinker and anticitizen one. Utterly untrustworthy. Pending removal to memory hole.

Crimson Wizard

I still wonder, maybe someone will make such a game with all these characters (or using redrawn sprites for compatibility); concept is quite interesting ;)

I can even contribute my own ugly attempt in writing an "middle-eastern" song  ;D
http://www.2dadventure.com/ags/clavesin_m2.mid

Shane 'ProgZmax' Stevens

Thanks for the compliments, Misj!  I slopped him a bit at the end because of my personal rule not to spend much time on these competitions (they're just for fun) and I also thought Evil's version of Lando to be most excellent.

Congratulations, Harry!

Crimson Wizard

QuoteI also thought Evil's version of Lando to be most excellent.
Maybe it's because he has most clean design of all these. Can be put right into the game, in my opinion.


Oh, and yes! -

Quote from: Misj' on Mon 05/10/2009 21:46:01
I am extremely curious how Me2Me2 would move by the way.

Me too.... me too....  ;D

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