Topic: New GFX set for AGS default Template (based on Sierra games)

[selmiak]

Current Combined Community Crafting Contest:
Template Background
http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/forums/index.php?topic=54956.0 (CLOSED!)




I like reading about the plans for a new demogame for AGS here:
http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/forums/index.php?topic=54692.20

this made me think one small step would be create a new set for the sierra control icons that are default to AGS. I personally like Lucas Arts controls better than clicking through mouse modes, but sierra controls are AGS default atm, but they were made many many moons ago and probably are programmer art and personally I think they are ugly. And we have a lot of talented artists here, why not make a new icon set for the sierra style controls in AGS. most if not all noobies to AGS use sierra style as it is the default and there are tutorials for it (on ags page and youtube and some) and these look ugly all the time. I don't want noobs to make ugly games and I don't want ags to have ugly standard icons.

So my intention with this thread is to create a new sprite icon set that will be the default for AGS. But before that I want to get your opinions on this, how easy would it be to make a new iconset the default in AGS and still have the really old and outdated sierra icons just one click away for fangames in sierra style? (this is mostly directed directly @ CrimsonWizard I guess)
Are the users of AGS all for that? Or rather have the ugly sierra icons the AGS default and let the user choose the newer style with just one click? I prefer the new icon set as default for more beautiful noob games so they don't even have to search for the option to change the defaults.

We could have a contest-styled activity with some kind of deadline for the icon-sets, we vote on the new default and all runner ups still get added to AGS with an easy dropdown menu to chose from (and in AGS 5.0 with a preview).

Would this be a good addition?
Would this be technically possible?
Are some artist interested and would join in on the pixeling?
Should we rather have one combined community effort for only one new set and no contest styled icon pixeling activity?
Should we also skin the rather blank default sierra textboxes and menus with that?


List added:
the Default Game Template has:

GUIs
*gStatusline (no bg by now)
*gIconbar

x1 x2 x4 x8

*gInventory (5 sprites + bg)
*gPanel (settings: sliders, Textbuttons (replace with icons?), bg)
*gRestartYN (Textbuttons + bg)
*gSaveGame (Textbuttons + bg)
*gRestoreGame (Textbuttons + bg)

Inventory Items
*iKey
*iPoster

Views
*View1 (4 walkcycles of recolored AGS blue Roger)
*View2

Characters
* cEgo (roger from View1)

x1 x2 x4 x8

Mouse Cursors
*Walk To
*Look at
*Interact
*Talk To
*use Inv
*Pick up
*Pointer
*Wait
*Usermode 1 (Walk to Sprite)
*Usermode 2 (Walk to Sprite)

x1 x2 x4 x8

Fonts
* 3 SCI fonts, they are terrible and do not support any foreign characters. They need to go.

Audio
* no sounds or music, should we add a short, maybe 10sec track?

Rooms
* room 1... the only room of the template

x1 x2 x4 x8

topic

Sprites
*already listed above, inventory items x1,5 + bluecup, gIconbar buttons, mousecursors + 2 arrows for scrolling


_______________________________________ _______________________________________ _______________________________
The state of the template on github:
https://github.com/caesarcub/AGS-SCI-Template

[CaesarCub]

I think it would be great to renew the art of the default UI.
And I'm willing to help with the pixeling (or participate in a contest).

I'm up to doing cursors, window borders, buttons, fonts or other UI elements.

What I'm just thinking now is that it might be interesting to also offer an out of the box high resolution default UI.
Now that AGS supports 720/1080p we should take advantage of showing that off on the templates.

[Crimson Wizard]

how easy would it be to make a new iconset the default in AGS and still have the really old and outdated sierra icons just one click away for fangames in sierra style?

These are game templates, which come as files in Templates directory. You may have any number of them as you want.

[cat]

Great idea! I'd enter such a competition.

[Cassiebsg]

Good idea selmiak! 
Also the current Sierra cursors seem to lose the black outline when converted to 32 bits...  Which makes them even worse/hard to look at.

[Danvzare]

I love this idea, and think all of the default AGS art could do with an update.
But isn't there already technically an updated version of the default AGS SCI GUI sprites on one of the old RON templates?

[Hobo]

But isn't there already technically an updated version of the default AGS SCI GUI sprites on one of the old RON templates?

Yes, there is:

x1 x2 x4 x8

But I like this idea and it's about time to get rid of those grey old boxes.
Should there be a separate set of icons for different resolutions or should they be somehow scalable?

[Danvzare]

But isn't there already technically an updated version of the default AGS SCI GUI sprites on one of the old RON templates?

Yes, there is:

x1 x2 x4 x8

I remember a version even older than that, which looked exactly like the default AGS version, but coloured in. I'm sure I could find them if I looked for them.

But who cares, since this thread is about creating whole new icons!

Should there be a separate set of icons for different resolutions or should they be somehow scalable?

I think there should be different sets for different resolutions. Preferably sets that look almost identical, but I'll understand if that's not possible. We really should hold a contest for this. Maybe the icons used could be some sort of combination of all of the entries.

[selmiak]

how easy would it be to make a new iconset the default in AGS and still have the really old and outdated sierra icons just one click away for fangames in sierra style?

These are game templates, which come as files in Templates directory. You may have any number of them as you want.

So we are basically building a new default (sierra) template there, alright
interest is there, mouses and tablets are ready, we only need some more definitions before we can get going.


Palette:
How many colors do we want? I'd say something between 4-16.
If we set a fixed palette we can easily swap images between contest entries in the final template!
Anyone up for defining a varied colorful and contrasty palette with low colorcount?

Resolution(s)
How many resolutions should this support. What are the icon- and box- sizes in the different resolutions?

anything else?
What is missing?

Yes, there is:

x1 x2 x4 x8

looking nice already. What do the ? and X button do anyways?

[Crimson Wizard]

Should there be a separate set of icons for different resolutions or should they be somehow scalable?

I think there should be different sets for different resolutions. Preferably sets that look almost identical, but I'll understand if that's not possible.

Depending on what you mean by having "almost identical" sets for different resolutions, but if you want to use exactly same images just of different sizes, you may just use one set and resize it in game script accordingly.

Another option is to have several sets, and either several templates, or one template with proper set chosen at runtime. Although in latter case game may end having unused gfx.

[CaesarCub]

Palette:
How many colors do we want? I'd say something between 4-16.
If we set a fixed palette we can easily swap images between contest entries in the final template!
Anyone up for defining a varied colorful and contrasty palette with low colorcount?

The palette should be divided on GUI windows and borders and the verb icons themselves.
I'd go for 16 if we plan to redo the whole GUI.
If you want the entries to be swappable it might be a good idea to ask for monochrome icons (which also means the palette can be changed more easily later on if needed).
I think it would be nice to customise the whole UI, including the sliders and even the Quit window (I remember going crazy the first time I used AGS looking where it was in the GUI list).

Resolution(s)
How many resolutions should this support. What are the icon- and box- sizes in the different resolutions?

I think we have 4 main resolutions: 320x200, 640x480, 720p and 1080p
Older classic resolutions like 800x600 and 1024x768 can accommodate the 720p ones.

Yes, there is:

x1 x2 x4 x8

Am I the only one that finds it funny using for the Sierra template icons that are inspired by Sam and Max Hit the Road?

looking nice already. What do the ? and X button do anyways?

I'm guessing options and quit

[cat]

Why limit color count when we can even do alpha channel in 32 bit, especially for high-res.
I'd say let's do a low-res (pixel art, with low color count) and a high-res (32bit, with proper alpha channel for anti-aliasing and stuff) version.

[[delete}]

A timeless and well-rounded interface should ship with AGS Classic. Pleasant UI design is not easy, so we should set the bar with an already good one.

[abstauber]

I'd just like to mention that we had this discussion in 2006 as well.
http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/forums/index.php?topic=27959.0

I think I have the assets still cached on my drive, the "new" Roger was drawn quite nicely.

[CaesarCub]

I'd just like to mention that we had this discussion in 2006 as well.
http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/forums/index.php?topic=27959.0

I think I have the assets still cached on my drive, the "new" Roger was drawn quite nicely.

So, we have had nicer assets that could be used on the Sierra template since over a decade?
Now I really want to see them.

[abstauber]

Found the Roger sprites

x1 x2 x4 x8

x1 x2 x4 x8

x1 x2 x4 x8

x1 x2 x4 x8

x1 x2 x4 x8

x1 x2 x4 x8

x1 x2 x4 x8

x1 x2 x4 x8

x1 x2 x4 x8

[selmiak]

@abstauber:
these look great! Let's use this!


I did some listing. I hope I didn't miss anything.

the Default Game Template has:

GUIs
*gStatusline (no bg by now)
*gIconbar (10 sprites + bg?)
*gInventory (5 sprites + bg)
*gPanel (settings: sliders, Textbuttons (replace with icons?), bg)
*gRestartYN (Textbuttons + bg)
*gSaveGame (Textbuttons + bg)
*gRestoreGame (Textbuttons + bg)

Inventory Items
*iKey
*iPoster

Views
*View1 (4 walkcycles of ugly roger)
*View2

Characters
*cEgo (roger from View1)

Mouse Cursors
*Walk To
*Look at
*Interact
*Talk To
*use Inv
*Pick up
*Pointer
*Wait
*Usermode 1 (Walk to Sprite)
*Usermode 2 (Walk to Sprite)

Fonts
* 3 fonts, we could replace them or leave them

Audio
* no sounds or music, should we add a short, maybe 10sec track?

Rooms
* room 1... a black room. we could just leave it as is as this is a template and no demo game. or some really simple room, a square box to encourage changing it immediately.

Sprites
*already listed above, inventory items x1,5 + bluecup, gIconbar buttons, mousecursors + 2 arrows for scrolling

[Snarky]

I'd just like to mention that we had this discussion in 2006 as well.
http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/forums/index.php?topic=27959.0

Thanks! I remember that, and the considerable resistance against making the default template "too good", thereby either discouraging newbies with impossible standards or tempting them to use the defaults rather than make their own.

I dunno... That may have made sense at the time, but I suppose we're all over it by now, right?

[selmiak]

Mommy, mommy, look what I made!
What did you do, little Timmy?
I made this game, mommy!
Oh this looks nice, what Engine did you use?
I made it in AGS!
Oh, AGS, now that's hot!


the default template of the engine should be tempting to use and tempt people seeing the finished game to try the engine imho.

[Hobo]

Found the Roger sprites

Neat stuff! Couldn't resist doing a little animation of my own.

x1 x2 x4 x8

...making the default template "too good", thereby either discouraging newbies with impossible standards or tempting them to use the defaults rather than make their own.

Impossible standards usually inspire and motivate me
And considering how many games still use the default menus or icons (especially MAGS games, because of time constraints), I'd rather have them look good than bad.