Background Blitz: Find the hidden treasure (ends May 31st).

Started by Misj', Tue 19/05/2009 13:26:06

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Misj'

Introduction
In a strange - not to well lit - shop you have uncovered the lost treasure-map of the fabled pirate Gelko Ironclad. You decided to go on a journey to gain fame, riches, and - of course - girls...I mean, are there truly other motivations besides girls.


Goal
Draw an in-game background (not a cut-scene background) for the character on his journey. Complement this background with a 'walkable-area-map' (how you indicate in a separate file which area's are walkable and which are not is up to you) for your character.

Rules
(I like rules, so there are several...but they are quite open to interpretation)
1. At least two of the distinct landmarks indicated on the map (use your imagination) have to be visible: one in the foreground, and one in the background.
2. At least one of the landmarks visible must not be man-made (literally...created by aliens or elves or whatever is allowed).
3. Keep in mind that the player's character must be able to stand close to the landmarks in the game (although not necessarily in this screen...use the walkable-area-map to indicate this)
4. There should be at least one interaction-spot in the background that is linked to some imaginary puzzle (you don't have to indicate it if you don't want to...just think of it while you design the background).
5. The background itself should be devoid of objects and sprite that are not part of the background itself (or that animate). However, should you feel that it is easier (or at all possible) to understand the background if you create a mock-up containing these layers, or if you indicate which areas are animated or the walk-behinds, then you may add these in a separate image...and it will be taken into account during voting.

Additional notes
What era or location the game would take place is open. Whether Gelko was a 16th century pirate, a modern-day pirate, or even a space-pirate (or anything else) is up to you. How long ago the treasure was buried (and thus how the landmarks were affected by time) is also open to you. The same goes of course for the landmarks themselves: it's all up to you.

Voting
I'll diverge slightly from the usual categories. While they are still largely based on the usual categories, I'll mention them beforehad so you can take them into account during your design.

Originality - Was the underlying idea of the background an original interpretation of this week's theme? - It does not have to coincide perfectly with the theme, as long as it strikes you as original yet interesting/amusing/inspiring.
Atmosphere - How well does image manage to evoke a certain feeling or mood? - This also includes, whether you are able to interpret from the image what genre the game is (a horror-game should have a different atmosphere than a childeren's story...still they may evoke the appropriate atmosphere equally well).
Design - Independent of composition, how well are the individual elements (such as landscapes, buildings, decorations, clouds, doorknobs, etc.) in the image designed. Would the individual elements of the background still be interesting when take out of their overall context in the image?
Focus - How well are composition, colour, contrast, saturation, light, shadows, etc. used to guide the player to the important or interesting area's?
Functionality - How usable is the background in-game? - Would it work when adding sprites, are the walking distances appropriate, are there clever walkway solutions, and is it easy to understood exits, etc.? - If the contestant has included an in-game mock-up (or a walkable-area-map, walk-behinds, etc) use these to determine your vote.
Technique - How well the ideas are executed in form of rendering? - This does not necessarily result in the most 'cutting-edge' technique, but also includes questions like 'how well did the contestant stick to the chosen style', 'are there no disturbing perspective mistakes', etc.

Contestants may enter until May 31st 23:59 my local time.
Voting will begin June 1st 0:00 my local time.

Have Fun!

Misj'

Only a few days left...

Hopefully there'll be some entries by then...otherwise I'll ask jerakeen to host the next Blitz, since it was a tie last time.

Misj'

loominous

I think the subdivision of the objective into introduction/goal/rules made this kinda confusing. I know I've reread these about eight times by now at various occasions, and still can't say that I know what is expected of the background, which makes it a bit of a hassle to get started.

I'll give it a shot though.
Looking for a writer

Misj'

Quote from: loominous on Wed 27/05/2009 10:21:24I think the subdivision of the objective into introduction/goal/rules made this kinda confusing. I know I've reread these about eight times by now at various occasions, and still can't say that I know what is expected of the background...
Hmm...I was afraid of that. Below you'll find a summary that will make it a bit more clear (I hope)  :-[



You're on a treasure hunt!
Draw an in-game (not cut-scene) background with a corresponding walk-area-map that the player will visit during his or her treasure hunt. The background should show at least two distinct landmarks* and should have at least one spot/object/whatever for the player to interact with.

* at least one of the landmarks should not be made by humans.

Kastchey

So if I got you correctly, you would like the entrants to draw a treasure map or at least a part of it, with the path to the treasure marked on it. And in the actual background, to place two terrain objects from the treasure map and also the path that connects them.

So the background would be some sort of a close-up in-game picture of the treasure map fragment? Or am I wrong?

Misj'

Quote from: Kastchey on Wed 27/05/2009 22:57:39
So if I got you correctly, you would like the entrants to draw a treasure map or at least a part of it, with the path to the treasure marked on it. And in the actual background, to place two terrain objects from the treasure map and also the path that connects them.

So the background would be some sort of a close-up in-game picture of the treasure map fragment? Or am I wrong?
It turns out I'm really terrible at explaining myself clearly (I hope it is due to the fact that was too busy when I wrote the original description)...but you were actually quite close.

The idea was to have the contestants imagine a treasure-map (they don't have to draw it though), and present a background that contains two landmarks that would be present on that imaginary map. Along with the background however, I thought it might be interesting to see a corresponding image that presents the walkable areas in the background which is something I often found difficult to interpret in past Blitz-entries; which made it sometimes difficult to envision - at least to me - how a background would work inside a game.

Yeah...I really should have thought longer (or shorter) about the description :)

Matti

He, I wasn't completely sure either, but now that I read your last post it turns out that I understood you correctly in the first place.  := Still, the description was a bit unclear..

I don't have much time but I might give it a try, I like the theme.

Anian

I've made myself practice in SketchUp, so the model pretty much sucks but I learned some new stuff and it was worth it I guess. WIP: link. I was working for 2 days and alot went into waiting for the damn thing to render...that's about all for the excuses.  :P

So, a kind of intro story that kind of doesn't explain anything:
A hundred years from now the universe ends, but it doesn't end in a big finale or any explosion, it rather starts to fall apart with laws of physics and time slowly unravelling and changing. Scientists soon are able to capture a matter called timeflux matter (points for originality please) and make hand held devices that enable time travel. The matter is abundand at this time because of all the annomalies occuring and there's plenty of it for all, although it's very unstable and quickly dissappears in other parts of the timeline.
The damage to the universe starts to increase beyond any comfortable safety. Few thousands of humans that survived the the horrors of the end of the universe used the time travelling technology to go to different parts of history and live there as a part of those civilisations. The directive being DON'T EVER COME BACK NOW, STAY WHEN YOU ARE! But alas greed is a great motivator and the power of time travel is far too tempting for some and they'll pay handsomely for the timeflux matter. That's where time pirates come in, they travel and find supplies of the matter. One of them, Gelko Ironclad finds a map from the farthest future where it's shown a great deposit of time matter, so he takes a crew to go for it.
Using their last supplies they came here, only to find they're not the only ones looking for this precious supstance...

This is the walkable area and the small red arrows show where the robot/alien hand is and the door it opens - puzzle sort off, you use the "space ship" to fly to that distant city):

Final render, the original size (1024x768): link
Final render at 500x375:


So anybody else entering?  :-[
I don't want the world, I just want your half

Misj'

It's a pity there were so few contestants (which was probably my own fault)...so Anian I guess that makes you the automatic winner; and to you befalls the task of running the next blitz.

Good luck! :)

Kastchey

Actually, it was a very nice theme Misj', it's a pity for me that I didn't have time to make an entry.
And I think I know what you mean with the walkable areas in the lately Background Blitz editions. There were entries that, as beautifully drawn as they are, look a bit more like amazing wallpapers than backgrounds for an adventure game ;)

Anian

...too bad nobody else entered, I really liked this theme and am not so happy with my entry, but hey, thanks anyway.

I have the next theme ready, hope it'll inspire more people, although if this kind of theme didn't I'm not so sure anything will.  :-\
I don't want the world, I just want your half

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