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I've updated the first post with a few more jobs, and tried to make it clearer by striking out completed tasks and italicizing things that people have claimed.  It's impressive what we've done so far!  The new jobs (from memory) are scientist close ups on par with our doctor (for final cutscene -remember they've lost a lot of blood!), cursor artists and someone interested in importing what we have so far into AGS (two backgrounds and maybe character frames).

@ Corby: Amazing!  If you did that in only an hour we must collaborate on another game some time -you can do the backgrounds, hundreds of them!

@Tabata: Your scientist frames are all great!  We must use as many of them as possible.  If you are up for a challenge, you should try to draw him lying down and lifeless.  Given that Merrick will enter the room from below, he will almost certainly attack the scientists from that direction.  So perhaps two frames of the scientist flailing (as Merrick bites him) and then one or two of him collapsing into the lying down position will be all that is needed for the character to be complete.  If Ascovel posts his biting animation (the first one he's working on, I believe) you might be able to skip the falling part (Merrick's cape may conceal it if it is raised "old style").

At first glance at the thread title (and thinking that I was still in GEN GEN) I thought you were really complaining about aliens....

The game looks interesting.  I like your main character -he reminds me of something, but I can't put my finger on it....  Does your GUI really enable charting (lower left) and sewing (at right)?  That's going to make for one hell of an interesting game!

Good Luck!

I've always liked the idea of OROW, but my participation depends entirely on the timing.

[Side Views]

Side Views


Front walkcycle still to come, Never done a back before, so I'll have a go at that one if I have time.

Notes:

• I initially hoped to do a more vampire-y walk, with 'Thriller hands' and everything, but I thought that would get annoying to watch after a while, woulf have been more difficult to reach a pleasing result.
  
• I'm not sure how well the legs are reading, they may have to be lightened before the animations are imported into the game.
  

Thank's Baron for the back sprite.

Nice!  That's pretty good for an hour -or did you go over?  Anyway, I think simple is best, so I believe you made the right decision.  I see what you mean about the legs: we'll see how they look in-game and if they're not reading well then we'll have to have someone lighten them.  And maybe take the far side of the cape down a pixel when he twists away, but this is just nit-picking: great job!

@Hudders: if some job has gone unclaimed that means

• a) we don't have qualified volunteers for that task yet
• b) volunteers with the appropriate skills haven't had the time or haven't looked at the available jobs list, or
• c) no one wants to do that job.

So if you're interested in doing more by all means sign up for another task.  Remember once your hour is complete you are in no way obligated to spend more time, but if you're keen... go for it!

[EDIT: Available Job information originally found in post #104 has been permanently moved to the First Post of the Thread.]

And I have no idea where to find the tasks needed. So yeah, anyhow, here's my declaration of interest.

 Yes, I can see how this has become unwieldy with the work list now buried in the middle of the thread.  Perhaps I'll just copy & paste it to the first post so that it will be more visible.

EDIT: Available Job information originally found in post #104 has been permanently moved to the First Post of the Thread.

  @Yarooze -I like the sprite and the exercise yard.  We will have to edit the cage a bit to create gaps large enough for the probe to pass through (maybe just a hole?) -otherwise I think it's great!  Thank you for being so prompt.

  @Hudders -This revised draft is much better, IMO: the jokes are there, but more subtle ("Stay boy!  Stay!") and I like the twist of the brain transplant.  And speaking of twists: Tabata is the evil doctor?!?  :o.  I never saw that coming....

  @Pinback -Awesome!  Just.... awesome!  Floating is great problem solving -good work all around.

  @Kaputtnik -Thanks for volunteering!  When we get a rough beta together we'll get you two to play through and come up with some ideas.

Edit Again: We have 30 Volunteers on the books.  We're halfway to our goal!

Edit Yet Again: While updating the Available Jobs I saw no one had grabbed the back view of the Merrick sprite so I've just slapped one together.  I hope it is acceptable:

O' art consistency, where art thou 

Anyway - here's the doctor, time ran out on the body, though.

I like him!  I also like Hudder's idea of fading in and out (or eyes shutting and opening) over time -easily achieved effect but adds to the atmosphere.  Keep up the good work!

PS -We've been promoted to a sticky thread!

Thats good. I think I work better with anything 320x240 and lower. And also when is every thing do?

Work is due when it's done, but don't drop off the face of the Earth for more than a week or I'll give your job to someone else.  Seriously, when you find the time in the near-ish future is fine.

@Corby     I'll update the the jobs post -sorry for any confusion.

@Tabata     I think it was Sephiroth that mentioned the spoiler tags and I just got confused, but I think you enunciated my general feeling as well.  There are spoilers laced throughout this thread already, and it will be hard to get everyone to edit their posts retrospectively.  As soon as we get two backgrounds I'm going to make some in-game mockups and start a GiP thread: this thread will be where all our dirty secrets are revealed and the GiP thread will be where only the "public" info will be posted.   

I also think we should shrink all characters to emoticon size and let Tabata be sprite design director  :o. 

[Edit:]

In terms of realism..... he's a cartoony ex-marine vampire cyborg!  A mechanical arm shooting out from his right side would be fine, and it can extend to keep things simple (but not indefinitely -that would make some light puzzles obsolete).  I don't think outright silly should be your objective, but if it turns out funny I don't have a problem with that.  For biting I definitely think a little cape cover would be awesome looking and practical too (it might get fiddly to coordinate biter and victim when both are fully visible).

Edit: If you meant how smoothly he should move (ie how many frames) I would say get the gist of the movement down (keyframes) and we'll fill in intermediary frames later if we have the will/manpower. 

In terms of tone..... I think we should aim for a degree of seriousness recognizing full well that it's going to turn out funny.  I'm not just fence sitting: for me this plot reads like a "B movie" and it should be treated as such.  So the characters take themselves seriously, even though the whole plot is absurd.  

@Hudders: I think your draft has merit (although we've got some feature creep by adding another character   ), but the doctor should tone down the overt silliness just a tad ("Wakey wakey!" for example).  Over the top creepy (which becomes absurd and therefore funny) would probably play out better.  More explanation of why Merrick is weedy and dressed in a vampire costume would be more important than rivalry with another facility plot-wise (good as the jokes were!).  You've also left out a few crucial bits of plot that the player will need: 1) different types of blood give the vampire the ability of that creature (dog blood for obedience in the plot draft), and 2) the facility is under attack giving him an opportunity to escape.

@abstauber: yeah, just like in the link.  Only....  don't make the fingers so long.

@anian: I have a table of all volunteers & their work preferences and/or completed tasks.  I've informally said I'm flexible with contribution time (it's now an hour-ish) -why turn away an extra 15 minutes of voluntary contribution time?  But of course no one is required to spend more than an hour if they don't want to.  I think it might be unwieldy to try to keep track of all time spent (I haven't been keeping track of my own time on the project, already over an hour!).

@Tabata: Regarding spoiler tags.... How do people feel about this?  I've tried to be very open thinking the more swarm members know the better the game will turn out, but that does come at the expense of keeping things secret for players.  Have we gone too far to change now?

Great to see all the enthusiasm so far -I can't wait to see some art.

[May 15 Edit: Due to newcomer's confusion about where our "available jobs" are posted, this information has now been moved to the First Post of the Thread. I've preserved the gist of this post for continuity purposes but all job info has been moved.]

May 15 Edit: Due to newcomer's confusion about where our "available jobs" are posted, this information has now been moved to the First Post of the Thread.  I've preserved the gist of this post for continuity purposes but all job info has been moved.
---------------
Original Post

I think we're just about there.  I really like Abstauber's paintover of my marine dude (and yes I was thinking Riddick -"Chronicles of Merrick" must have put the idea in my head....  : ).  In terms of character I think the marine dude is more along the lines of what I was thinking of originally, so I guess I'm partial to that kind of Arnold Swarzenegger/Vin Diesel kind of monster.

But then I consider the experiment: there will be a lot of people with varying artistic abilities working together, and a more complex sprite is just asking for trouble.  The final "nail in the coffin" (if you'll permit me) for military dude is how his level of detail conflicts with the awesome background template (and we're not revisiting that).  See for yourself:



For these reasons I'm making an executive decision in favour of Sephiroth's adaptation of my adaptation of Anonymous's adaptation of Cat's sprite (it was the most collaborative design anyway).  I guess I can reveal that Anonymous was actually Ali all along, he just didn't want to be seen trying to control the entirety of the artistic design department.  Thanks for the overtime, Ali!  I thought Sephiroth's adaptation of Sephiroth's adaptation of... (I'll stop now) made the character a bit too mean looking to empathize with.

So moving on -let's SWARM! See First Post for Available Jobs!

That's all I can think of for now, but more will drip out over the coming days.  Good luck and have fun!

[Edit]

I think the collective intelligence of the swarm has decided by now through all the sprites that the marine part should be discarded
I'm for less discussions (Radiant's wikipedia analogy could become true, he must be proven wrong!!!) and more individual work being put together even if it's not 100% fitting.

And all these sprites look great in their own way, I hope they can be included with some alterations for some NPCs in the game.

I too am chomping at the bit to get going, but the potential to make this game look and feel really unified is too tempting.  Just an extra day or two to get the right sprite design to go along with the background style and plot could make the difference between a good experiment and a good game.  There'll be plenty of time for divergent styles to take their toll, but few chances to bring the game together into something unified.

Here's my latest attempt, based on Sephiroth's adaptation of my adaptation of anonymous #2:

Basically I've added a mechanical arm and played with his colouring to be more "military".

Is there room in the OSD Universe for Gay Frankenstein?  Only six more months to Hallowe'en....

In terms of redesign: the marine backstory is not critical, but why then is the military creating vampire cyborgs?  Ease of animation is definitely highly important to the redesign, and easily recognizable character should also be a priority.  Merrick's characteristics as I see them are: violated being x2 (turned vampire, turned cyborg) and all that entails -identity crisis, self-loathing....  Also he is a killing machine, both biologically (vampire) and mechanically (cyborg) -he might as well be intellectually (marine training) as well.  Finally there is that vengeful streak: he wants to escape and get back at those who have done him harm.  He's basically a very simple character: bloodthirsty, although slightly conflicted as to whose blood to thirst for and by what means to extract it.

Edit: Yet more experimenting....


   ....pushing 60px, despite the wonky proportions to try to shrink him.  Definitely less vampiry, but I think I hit the marine/cyborg buttons pretty well.

[EDIT]

Hey,

I've tried to dissociate my draft from the current "Count Borg" sprites




This sprite has a bit more of a cyborg than the typical Bela Lugosi type of vampire.

PS: Sephiroth, your cybat is plain awesome

Awesome!  But it would be nightmare to animate with so many fingers in the pot.

I guess I'm fixated on the "cyborg" element because it's his motivation.  That's why he's angry at the [military?], and that's why the vampire twins turn against him.  I do like Hudder's variations on Anonymous...

...but I think the implant looks too much like half of a pair of sunglasses or 3D glasses (1.5D?).  I'm not sold on the colours either, although Sephiroth's visible fangs and paler skin (and return to hair) definitely look better than my paintover.

EDIT  I think abstauber makes a good point: the probably would be more butch.  The problem is an entire redesign will eat up valuable contribution time and scrap some good efforts....  I guess for the good of the end product we'll leave off making any decisions for a day or two more to give people an opportunity to put their thoughts into picture form.  Maybe just sketches so people aren't sinking a lot of time into this before we have a more concrete direction. 

Just playing around with trying to merge some ideas:



I've cut out the diagonal sprites.  Yes, they look really good, but they will multiply the work load beyond the scope of just a simple game.  I can see Studio3's sprite: it looks good -kinda Twilightesque.  Probably a little too "Dude!" for the plot, but good nonetheless.

I'm still not getting the "THAT'S IT!" feeling, though.  What are we missing here?

OK, last day for input.  I think everyone's cool with the visual style guide that Ali came up with.  In general the composite plot seems to have held up -we can tweak it a bit (cockroaches for example), but this is your last chance to suggest major modifications.  The hold-up is mostly what this main sprite should look like.  Let's consider our options:

By Cat

By Cat with Modifications
by Anonymous (#1, #2, #3, #4)
by Armageddon

I think if everyone who has an opinion states which one they like, or even more helpfully what it is that they like about ones they like, then it will be easy to make an executive decision that will satisfy everyone.

For me, I like the simplicity of Cat's sprite because it will make it easy for contributors of varying skill to animate.  Having said that, I do think the "cyborg" elements needed to be a bit more prominent (obviously, since I did the paintover modified version).  The anymous sprites do have more character, however, although I believe Armageddon's colour scheme is best (skin & clothes).  After careful consideration, my preference in a perfect world would probably be Anonymous #2 with Armageddon's colour scheme and enhanced cyborg implants similar to Cat with Modifications.  Considering the restrictions of the experiment, however, it might be more expedient to have him floating for movement purposes (like Anonymous #4, only with dangling legs and a more sinister posture).

What do you think?

...  Sorry Tabatha, you're off the team. 

Hey Baron â€" wait a minute! - You fired me,    mich,    moi?!? - That's not fair!

Sorry, I was just having a bit of fun  .  You are of course welcome to participate, regardless of ability.  Keep your eye on the thread once I start posting jobs -some of them will almost certainly require little artistic/technical prowess.

[not]

I like the idea of this project 
and hate for not being able to participate 

Added Tabatha to the volunteer list for one hour of hating about not being able to participate.  Which means she is participating, so she's happy!  But what's this?  Happy Tabatha can't hate, and participating Tabatha can't not participate, so she is utterly incapable of doing her job!  Sorry Tabatha, you're off the team. 

In terms of the proposed plot, I can be persuaded to add in a walk/wheel icon.  Wheeling would make movement animation a whole lot easier....  It'd be like Quest for Tires!  We should so have the same sound effects for jumping and ducking and riding -that would be awesome! 

The unique talk icon is harder to justify, since it would be rarely used.  Why not just use the same icon as biting and let the script sort it out?  I know my first impulse as a player would be to click the vampire teeth on everything: I call this the bite 'em all and let god sort it out strategy.  And if you think about it, what better conversation starter than advancing menacingly with your mouth agape and fangs at the ready?  Victim: "What are you doing?!?  Merrick: "Uh.... I'm really tired and my jaw just went into an extended yawn there.  Say, do you know where I could find a substance that could contain neutrinos?" 

Added Anian to the volunteer list under "not interfering". 

@ Anian: Will you be available to not interfere over the weekend?

Plus I like the cockroach idea -why not just have two solutions to the final puzzle?

I like the new sprites and the composite plot, although the pine-cone/explosion puzzle seems a little convoluted and unintuitive to me.

But you have to concede that combining the vegetable powers from the one plot with the base explosion from the other plot was pretty clever!

I think the robot monster would just kill Merrick in hand-to-hand combat if it couldn't use its laser.  So eventually the player would have to think up a way to try to destroy the robot without killing Merrick in the process.  The scientific knowledge of the pine cone being able to survive forest fires could be subtly included.  We can get writers to fill in these gaps to lead the player to the right conclusions.

[[LAB ROOM, with mirror stand, laser apparatus (fixed), chair with straps, cotton swabs, refrigerator, flashing red light. One exit, metal door.]]

An anonymous sprite was left on my doorstep:


This gives us lots of options to choose from.  We also have one composite plot to consider:
-------
CHRONICLES OF MERRICK

INTRO: [Dr. Hovers over Merrick, 1st person view]  Doctor explains how they've brought Merrick back from the darkside via robotic implants that control his vampire impulses.  It is also revealed that Merrick is a former marine, and is in a secret military installation.  Merrick freaks out when he sees his cyborg limb and the doctor retaliates by saying that he has ways of making Merrick more obediant.  Mentioning the vampire ability to take on the powers of the bloodthey consume, the Doctor sets up an IV running dog's blood directly into Merrick's vein and plays a tape with hypnotic commands.  Just as he inserts the IV there is an alarm [red flashing] and the doctor must withdraw.  Cigar falls from his mouth.

GUI ICONS: TEETH (suck/chew/talk), ROBOHAND (take/use), BIONIC EYE (look).  Player walks by clicking on usable item or exit with other icons.

PLOT: [LAB ROOM, with mirror stand, laser apparatus (fixed), chair with straps, cotton swabs, refrigerator, flashing red light.  One exit, metal door.]
-Use teeth to break straps holding Merrick to chair.
-Use Robohand to remove IV. 
-Speakers play "Obey your Master" over and over.  Use cotton swabs to block ears.  Merrick then instructs himself to escape (automatic?)
-Get cigar from floor.
-Use laser and mirror to unlock door.  Exit.

[HALLWAY, sparse but with UV light acting as a containment field to the vampire, three exits - either end and middle]
-if Merrick enters the light he starts to smoke, so he retreats (automatic)
-return to Lab, use Robohand on fridge.  Merrick rummages in fridge and finds bags of blood, a can of coke, bag of carrots and a banana.
-use teeth on carrots (multiple times); eventually Merrick turns orange, and this pigment allows him to run through the light. (colour fades quickly)
-Use robohand on lightswitch to turn off UV light

[ROBOT LAB (middle door from hall), scientists (2) working on circuitboards, experimental probe, pine bonzai tree, various other complex looking mechanisms]
-use teeth to neutralise scientists (you now have advanced knowledge)
-use robohand on probe (advanced knowledge allows you to fix/activate it)
   (perhaps fixing requires gum, wire, rubber band)
-use robohand on bonzai plant and take pine cone (scientific knowledge about reproduction of pine species revealed)
-use robohand on matches from scientist (on floor?  Insense burner?  Bong?)

[EXERCISE YARD (end of hall), fenced over, sunny, catwalk above with guard, umbrella hanging at end from hook, two exits on lower side]
-use probe with banana on guard -he slips and is electrocuted on fence.
-use probe on umbrella: creates a small shadow that Merrick walks under to cross the yard.

[GUARD ROOM, guards are fully armed (something is happening just beyond, there are flashes of light -gunfire), gas main]
-use cheetah blood (from lab) and then teeth on the guards: Merrick eliminates them all with super speed.
-screen shakes and debris blocks way to exercise yard.  Robomonster bursts into guardroom.
-small cutscene where robomonster opens top to reveal vampire twins.  They are here to rescue him, but see that he is beyond redemption (due to implants)
-robomonster hatch closes and robomonster prepares to fire laser blaster at Merrick.  "Any last words, loverboy?"
-Use probe to pull lever to open gas main.  "That laser will blow us both to kingdom come."
-Robomonster pauses "What do we do?" whispers.
-Use teeth on pine cone.
-Use lighter on cigar.  "I guess the spark ain't gone afterall, huh ladies?"
-Everything explodes!

EPILOGUE (as credits run):
   Vampire Sisters: "Good thing that robomonster was fireproof afterall.  Good riddance, Merrick!
     --more credits--
   Cigar Smoking Doctor: "What a mess.  We'll start the program over at Base 197.  Salvage what you can and decamp by 19:00.  We don't want to be around here after dark in case those vampires come lurking back in force.
   Minion: "Should we search for survivors?"
   Doctor: "No one could have survived those flames."
     --more credits--
   Scientist: "That was a hundred year old bonzai tree!"
   Other scientist: "Remember your fire ecology: the pine cone will survive the flames and a new tree will grow from it."
   Scientist: "Yeah... in a hundred years!"
      --more credits--
   Robotic hand emerges from the ashes.  Merrick: "This ain't over." (or something else melodramatic)
      --cut to rock anthem, final credits, end.
--------------

While it would be unwieldy to democratize the entire process, I think volunteers' input should be considered at this stage of the process so that we can develop the best possible (short) game.  Therefore I open the floor to discussion and criticism of both the proposed plot and the main sprite over the next two days.  (This might allow time for our last editor to report back as well).  After this period of reflection I'll put my foot down and declare a finalized (and no doubt amended) sprite & plot version, after which we'll be ready to kick production into high gear.   

(I didn't read through the entire thread)

*Gasp!*      It is a little unwieldy, I agree.   It won't be long until we have a proper GiP thread, though -that should help sort the experiment from the theory in this thread.

I could do an hour-worth of animations. Is there a list somewhere of what is needed? And do I need a badge before I'm allowed to animate?

Anyone who has expressed an interest in volunteering in this thread is on THE LIST.  I've tried to be diligent about PMing people who have volunteered -mostly with a "standby" message for now, but hopefully we'll get just about everyone involved within the week.

I was thinking this would be more of an old castle/hospital place by the sea, or like the original Castle Dracula where tons of gruesome experiments were performed except it's more modern with robots and things. I also think Merrick shouldn't be holding his hands together as it looks unnatural and a walking animation for that would seem strange.

  Personally I would have gone in another direction as well, but I'm interested in seeing what is distilled out of all of this.  Remember that the experiment calls for intentionally relying on the loosely directed creative instincts of the community, which means accepting and valuing contributions.  Obviously all contributions won't be appropriate to include in the game in their purest form, but I'm keen to include elements from all.  In the end I think we'll have created something quite distinctive in a novel way.

   Having said that we could always run the scripts through the creative editing process once more.  Anyone who wants to have a hand at it is welcome to attempt to compile a composite plot.  Just make sure it's in simple walkthrough language this time (it would be most efficient for directing other team members).

   As for the sprite, I think the walk-cycle with the hands clasped would a) make animating simpler and b) give the character an otherworldly kind of feeling.  But again paint-overs are welcome! 

[Edit:]

PROJECT UPDATE:
Alright, we've got all the plots.  I might as well share them for everyone who's interested (I've disguised the identities of the authors so that there is no bias):

        Plot #1
        Plot #2
        Plot #3

   Currently there is an editor charged with the task of distilling a simple walkthrough for our project based on the ideas listed from the texts above (in one hour, no less!).  I'm not sure what he'll come up with, but hopefully it will give us enough of an idea of what the game will look like that we can start designing locations and additional characters.  Granted, the plots are all quite distinct from each other, but careful reading does show some similarities that I think we should try to keep: different species blood/juices give the vampire different powers and his robotic functionality should somehow be linked to evading death-by-light, for example.  Anyway, I know we're all waiting with baited breath to see what will emerge.

   In other news I spent all of five minutes playing with Cat's sprite.  I made the cloak contrast a bit more with his garments, and expanded the robotic arm and eye implants so that they'll read easier at small resolutions.  Any one have any suggestions?




Edit: By the way we have 17 volunteers on the books so far!