Sprite Jam: Abstract Inventory (Winner announced)

Started by Sinitrena, Wed 25/08/2021 23:22:29

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Sinitrena

Every aspiering adventurer needs to learn sooner or later to lug around all kinds of strange objects in their far too small pant's pockets: Ladders, books, boxes,... are all standard adventure game gear - and therefore inventory items.

But sometimes your adventurer is supposed to take more, let's say, abstract things along. Concepts and Ideas can end up in the inventory of a character as well. (I'm sure of it, but as is always the case when I try to think of a specific example, I just can't come up with anything). What concepts and ideas am I talking about? Just about anything, really, that doesn't have a physical presence: The Love of your Life :-[ , or time itself, the memory of a dead friend or, somewhat simpler, a magical spell. These are just some ideas off the top of my head, but you can use anything that isn't an actual physical object you can touch.


(A heart, a rather common symbolic representation of love)


(Skull and Crossbones can be a symbol for the concept of death)

These two are just some of the more basic and common ideas.


Here's your task:

- come up with an abstract concept that might show up as an inventory item
- draw this inventory item as a sprite
- post it here before the deadline of 9. September 2021
- let us know what your idea was (but put it in spoiler tags, a bit of guessing adds to the fun)

Go crazy!

DBoyWheeler

I whipped up a quick one.  Here is a star to represent a magic spell--and since it's blue, maybe we could say this is an Ice-element spell.


cat

Example: I think I have only played the first few minutes, but I think in this game there was an inventory item "brute force", so with the verbs you could "use brute force on..."  (laugh)

Sinitrena

Thank you for the example, cat!

And thank you for the entry, DBpyWheeler!

I hope there'll be a couple more in the next three days!

Cassiebsg

Are you feeling...

Spoiler

...lucky?

Choose your luck:
[close]

[imgzoom]https://i.imgur.com/wpCBEU0.png[/imgzoom]

[imgzoom]https://i.imgur.com/21AtLgA.png[/imgzoom]
There are those who believe that life here began out there...

Klatuu

Pardon me, Adventurer, I seem to have lost something. Could you find it for me?

Spoiler
Oh, there it is! You've found my Sense of Humor! Thank you!
[close]

[imgzoom]https://i.imgur.com/JbWFW7j.gif[/imgzoom]


Sinitrena

Oh, more entries! Lovely!

Cassie, for voting purposes later, I am to take this as one entry with two parts from you, not as two entries that happen to have a similar theme? Correct?

Cassiebsg

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

Reiter

Ah, yes. One thing remains. Your... Constant Companion.

Spoiler
[imgzoom]https://i.imgur.com/gv8CDhy.png[/imgzoom]
[close]

Bring it with you. Or do not, it will always be there.

Its uses are its own.

Sallah




The stickman on fire symbolizes "a risky move": That enthusiastic hands-on attitude which creative sparks sets our foolish hero on fire him/herself. Could go right in theory, maybe ends in disaster.
(Originally avatar by m0ds)

Sinitrena

Such a nice selection of things to carry around. Thank you everyone!

With that, the time to enter has passed and the time to vote has begun. These are our entries:

1.
[imgzoom]https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51411124136_d0c01674c6_o.png[/imgzoom]
DBoyWheeler
Spoiler
Magic: Ice-element spell
[close]

2.
[imgzoom]https://i.imgur.com/wpCBEU0.png[/imgzoom]
Cassiebsg (1)
Spoiler
Luck
[close]

3.
[imgzoom]https://i.imgur.com/21AtLgA.png[/imgzoom]
Cassiebsg (2)
Spoiler
Luck
[close]

4.
[imgzoom]https://i.imgur.com/JbWFW7j.gif[/imgzoom]
Klatuu
Spoiler
Sense of Humor
[close]

5.
[imgzoom]https://i.imgur.com/gv8CDhy.png[/imgzoom]
Reiter
Spoiler
Constant Companion
[close]

6.
[imgzoom]https://i.ibb.co/McNJCGH/stickmanonfire-160.png[/imgzoom]
Sallah
Spoiler
Stickman on fire!
[close]



Everyone is welcome to vote.
Please chose your 1st, 2nd and 3rd place out of these 6 entries. Additional comments are welcome, but not necessary.
Voting deadline: 14 Sepember 2021

Sallah

Voting for 1st: Klatuu: It's a funny minimalistic animation, not too distracting to have it in your inventory. And poking fun on a person or object in a sense of "use joke attempt on..." seems a Simon-the-Sorcerer-like attempt on solving puzzles. Good!

2st: Reiter: Weirdly disturbing visual, nicely pixeled. Could get interesting to use this concept, like interacting pretending or being someone else (here: your mothman companion).

3st: Cassiebsg (2): Pushing your luck is a classic RPG trait, could add surprising variation to adventurous interactions too. Also loosing your luck would make sense, or it has to recharge slowly etc.

Sinitrena

This competition is in desperate need of more votes! Come on, everyone, there's a day (and a bit) left.

Sallah

#13
The host picking a winner and passing the torch on quickly seems favorable.

Klatuu

1.) Cassiebsg (2): "Bad" Luck. I like the detail on the cat, and it's in a classic Halloween pose. It also fits the theme very nicely. It could be fun (although mean) to see the effects of using "Bad Luck" on other characters!

2.) Reiter: Constant Companion. It has a surreal Dali/Magritte/David Lynch look and feel to it.

3.) Cassiebsg (1): "Good" Luck. Like the previous entry, it has nice detail and pixel-aesthetic, even with so few colors.

A few notes on the other entries: DBoyWheeler's entry is simple yet effective. The sharp bottom points of the star are reminiscent of icicles, very nice for an ice spell.

And Sallah's entry is a fun, goofy idea. I like the idea of having an "enthusiastic hands-on attitude" in your inventory, but I feel this is something of an inside-joke that was from before I joined the forums :)

Nice job everyone!

Reiter

1st place: CassieBSG's Bad Luck. I like it. It is a nice representation of luck; good or bad, depending on where you are. It is a very nice cat, well-drawn and expressive. Reminds me of Sabo-Tabby! Well done!

2nd place: Klatuu's Sense of Humour. A nicely animated little thing, and a good all-round on humour, which is terribly difficult to illustrate. Good work!

3rd place: Sallah's Stickman on Fire!. I fondly remember the stickman era of the internet. A lot can be done with men of sticks. This is good, although I shall confess that I am unsure of what it may illustrate. Then again, there are plenty of emotions and phenomenons to set a chap on fire, and this could be that. A fiery word, perhaps, or an igneous insult? The right words to set a fellow ablase with rage? Well done, nonetheless!


As for voting, it can feel rather slow, certainly (particularly with busy slow-pokes such as myself endlessly forgetting to get involved), but I think it is the best method. It is a nice way to provide for some feed-back and discussion from the participants. It takes a while, but we are hardly in a hurry, after all.

I suppose the host could have the final descision on proceedings, though. Certainly in the role as tie-breaker, or if there are insufficient votes.

Cassiebsg

Oops, sorry, been on overdrive with work, that I forgot about this.  :-[

1st: Klatuu
2nd: Reiter
3rd: Sallah
There are those who believe that life here began out there...

Sinitrena

And we have a winner!

But before I tell you who it is, let me tell you: You all did a wonderful job with my slightly weird topic and came up with some interesting concepts. For some I see great gameplay potential, for others less, but they are all great.

On an unfortunate last place, we have DBoyWheeler with a magic spell. I Kinda like that the star is not completely uniform, which gives this simple symbol a nice bit of uniqueness. In a game where magic is established, one might be able to recognize this as an ice spell, but out of context, I see little connection with ice. Still, the simplicity is pretty nice.

Next, we have Cassiebsg's good luck on the 5. place. Like DBoyWheeler's Magic, this is a pretty simple symbol. It's a well-known representation of luck and has a nice amount of details for such a small picture. I could easily see this in my inventory. Good job.

On the 4. place is Sallah's Stickman. I'm really not sure what to think of this. I have no idea what kind of inventory item this would be, what concept it represents or how it could be used in a game. I'm sorry, this idea left me with a mental shrug. Maybe a bit more of an explanation would have been nice.

Now, onto our medal winners. On the 3. place is Reiter with his Constant Companion. Like with Sallah's entry, I'm not exactly sure how this item could be used gameplay-wise, though the ideas in our voters comments might all work. I like the picture as a picture though. With very few pixles, it seems to tell a whole lot of story.

Our 2. place goes to Cassiebsg's bad luck. What a beautiful cat! Luck (and bad luck) work great as gameplay mechanics, I think. I read a book once where the main character's superpower was it to break things. It was a great concept. With this cat, I like it that it could be both a concept and a real physical object. You pick up the cat early in the game and get unlucky from that point on, but can also use it from time to time on others to move forward despite your bad luck... There are some ideas that come to mind here. Love it.

And our winner is Klatuu. My first thought was that an animated inventory item could get annoying really fast when it is constantly on the screen - better keep this one in a inventory you have to open. Anyways, like Cassie's luck concept, a Sense of Humor certainly has a lot of gameplay applications. The animation, while not great as an inventory item, looks pretty nice otherwise and a dancing clown head brings the idea of Sense of Humor across really well too. I like it.


Congratulations to all of you.

And with that, it is my last duty here to pass on the concept of Competition Administrator to Klatuu. Go start the next round!

Cassiebsg

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

Klatuu

Thank you!

Great job, everyone! I should have a new contest ready soon!

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