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"Yahtzee makes games which titles start with a number. His reasons for doing this remain shrouded in mystery."

He clearly did it to be on page 1 of the games database  .

Regarding AGS facts.... "The AGS forums are 93% more likely to go down when CJ isn't around to fix them."

This is a bit heavy so don't read onward if your in a light-hearted mood.


     I was playing hockey late last night; first game of the season.  It's a church league, pretty gentle stuff with mixed ages (20s-60s).  It was getting towards the end of the game and I was getting pretty tired.  I accidentally put the puck over the boards and was just a little upset at myself for doing so.  The goalie called out to me casually "Better out there than in the net."  We got a new puck, and I went to the bench for a rest.  Not a minute later the goalie went down -heart attack.  He was one of the younger guys out there -early thirties.  My age.
     The guys closest to him quickly determined what was happening and ripped off his helmet and chest protector.  I ran to the arena foyer and called 911 (blunted my skates really good doing it, too).  The ambulance showed up in four minutes because the hospital was only two blocks away -pretty lucky.  By the time I got back to the ice sheet one guy had the rink defibrillator out and was giving him a shock, while another waited for the all-clear to start CPR (again, I supposed).  I took a CPR class four or five years back and it really seemed like these guys did everything right -call for help, check airways, AR (artificial respiration), CPR, defibrillation if available.  The paramedics were there shortly after I returned.  They didn't seem to move as fast or as urgently as my teammates, but I guess they know their business and to be fair we were on ice.
      The guy never moved, except when he was being zapped.  He turned kind of blue, and then paled again, and just stared vacantly at the roof through half-slit eyes -the kind of look that's on the dead rodents that my cat brings in.  It's a horrible thing, but that's all I could think of -maybe it was the hockey equipment holding his arms up, but he even had the dead rodent pose.  Oh, and I also couldn't get out of my head how trivial his last words were -yes, I am a terrible person.  Anyway, eventually the paramedics wheeled him out and I heard this morning that he had been pronounced DOA.

      Well, this has been therapeutic for me to write this all out, but I'm wondering if anyone else has encountered a sudden death first-hand and fixated on these less-than-profound details.  Am I cynical, or just plain shallow?  Or is this just a stage of disbelief that the creator's of Eternally Us missed out on?  (Yes, that is how I've learned about the grieving process -I'm an adventure gamer, after all).

Ah, trophies..... that takes me back.  These are all that I've handed out:











Most of them were for the Animation Competitions a couple of years back, but I guess I'll have to do some research into the specifics.

MIRROR

Nice upgrades to the intro, Ascovel!  Many congrats on getting 'er done.  Cheers!

Well, it was a painful 7 1/2 minutes to get through the playthrough, but I agree that the parody was well worth it!

Paul: Yeah, water, I know the drill.  Where can I -?
Tree Lady: Just get the damn water!

Classic.

I heard a rumour that this game is being re-released tomorrow in it's final version of awesome amazingness.  Who's ready for Friday night at the bar, baby?!? 

See you out there.

Oh my god -someone should make an freeware adventure game developer simulator!  How awesome would that be?! 

Drink more liquor -game quality goes down! 
Pimp game online, downloads increase marginally! 
Free server site crashes -crisis! 
Girlfriend just doesn't "get" it -liquor consumption increases! 
Have spat with development team -recruit more malleable newbies!
Critics assign one cup rating -flame the forums!
Landlord hassles you for rent - pretend you're not home!
Sprite walk-cycle looks like your cat drew it -drink more liquor!
Internet fame spreads -start a blog!
Eviction notice posted - move it to the jerk-next-door's door adventure game style!
Drink liquor -dream of going commercial!
Hit minor road-block - abandon project!

And so on and so forth....   

I'll give them a ha, but no exclamation mark.

[[Spinning Batman Logo]]

Thanks for visual input Ali.  I love the legs you gave her, although it looks like she's wearing ski boots.  The boob reduction registers as a little imbalanced to my eye, but I see where you're going.  Again, I shall return with another update.

[Spinning Batman Logo]

Edit: Alright, I'm back, and so is she:


The pose is more natural (not that it matters, she'll be moving all over the place), and her head is slightly more upright.  I've reduced and reshaped the boobs again.  The legs are slightly tweaked to avoid the appearance of straight lines.  I really tried to duplicate Ali's thinner legs, but I just couldn't get it to look right.  All in all I'm pretty happy, and I think this was a very worthwhile exercise.  The full evolution (without changing poses):


Thanks for all the help!  Wish me luck on my game.

As a unionized worker, my first impulse was to vote for the "keep putting time in, but not a whole lot of effort" option.  But -gasp! it's not there!  C'mon, at least some of you would be tempted to do a half-assed job, if not to slowly rot the enterprise from within as your low work-ethic permeates the work force, then because it is surely the path of least resistance.  I'll add it as option F.

Wow, that is better than porn.  And I don't say that as often as you might think.

Princess Version IV:

I think I'm getting quite close to a finished product here.  I've taken your (collective) advice and made the boobs (we're calling them that now) more natural in their clothed state, without compromising that edgy indie style (too much).  I've slimmed the legs, yet still given them shape.  I've also flared her... garment.  What is that anyway, in medieval speak?  A tunic?  Anyway, I've also moved the legs a little closer and reduced the boot flaring at the top, which I think was the source of a lot of my leg issues.  In general I'm very happy torso-up, and I'm fairly happy downstairs as well.  So this is your last chance to offer improvements before I move into animation.

Thanks for all the help so far!

I can vouch for the fact that Ascovel has put a LOT of effort into polishing this game, adding new scenes and puzzles, menus and WTF moments.  From a moderately long MAGS game this project has evolved into a full-fledged (and fully original soundtracked) medium length adventure game.  I've seen the latest builds and I am amazed how far along it has come -fans of the original MAGS game will be equally impressed, and new players will be blown away by the hallucinogenic surrealism.  Good work, Ascovel!

    Yeah, I helped a bit.  A couple dozen extra animations, and a few plot suggestions.  But Ascovel was the real work-horse behind this gem.

Baron

I'm not sure if Mad's boobs are Disneyfied, but they sure look bigger than mine.  Perhaps I should play with them some more to make them look a little more realistic behind her clothing.  Seriously, is anybody out there intimidated by the size (and obviousness) of her breasts?  Do you think it might be offensive and discourage some gamers from playing?  That might provide me more impetus for further editing up top.

In the mean time:


I've shrunk her belt slightly and lowered it slightly (not as much as in original), twisted her front foot to appear more in line with her shoulders, redrawn the legs (again, again....), elongated her overshirt, moved the slit further to the side, and tweaked the colours a bit.  I like that her legs have shape now, but they seem to make her look more powerful than elegant, which I'm uncertain of given her character.

Further opinions or pointers welcome.

Alright, I've tried to follow most of your advice:
has evolved into

     The head is shifted to the right, the scarf slightly expanded to obscure the revealed juncture between her chest and arm, the breasts reduced, the belt moved and expanded, the "backwards" arm repositioned, the legs redrawn and repositioned to support her head, and her colours have been simplified.

      Right away I notice that the slit I've added to her overshirt is in the wrong spot -I'll get that next time. 
      The arm shade and leg shades also appear too close to each other now that I see her on the blue background.  The legs are the same shade as the hair now, but the arms can not be that colour because they will blend in too much when she reaches upward.  Any suggestions?
      I'm still not happy with her legs either -they seem unfeminine.  And her boots seem.... a little loud, although they match her cape and shirt now. 
      I realize with the vector art it's hard to do a paintover but a really crude dump fill in Paint would be appreciated if anyone has any colour ideas.  As for the legs.... can anyone recommend a good porn site where leggy women pose like fantasy heroines?  I'm only half-joking.

That's a nice clean style there and the face does look good. Your drawing does look like it's evolved since Charlie and Rose.

It's a fairly linear progression from Al-Quest 1 onwards.  Besieged almost drove me insane with all the bitmap sprite shading, so I've switched to vectors.

What tone is the game, comedy? What is she like?
Is she supposed be a princess whos father's throne is overtaken by an evil man and at first she's spoiled and scared but through the story and adventure she becomes a better person and takes in distress that finds courage to defeat the evil overlord and take back her familiy's throne. Or is she a woman warrior Xena meets Robin Hood? ...that'll help set the pose - confident, scared etc.

    Well, the plot may evolve a bit yet, but she was a spoiled brat princess who has been locked in a tower for ten years with nothing but books and a few enchanted inmates for company.  She has since resolved to mend her ways and devote herself to her oppressed people, if only she can escape.
    The game will have light humour, but will be more quest than comedy.
    Personality wise she will be sincere, but a little naive; determined, but also a little whimsical.  In terms of intellect she will be bookish, but not wordly.

Just on first view:
- her posture is not balanced, or rather she doesn't have the right weight distribution, try rotating the head a few degrees clockwise and pushing it to the right a bit, head has to be in a straight vertical line above the heels
- I can't really tell for sure but you should probably place the belt at the narrowest part of the figure, now the belt is below that narrowest point (people don't always wear it like that but I think it'll look more natural with fabrics), her elbows should be just a bit above the belt (they seem to be now) so when you move the belt up the elbow should move up a bit as well
- on a personal prefference, sort of, I think her breasts might be a tad too big, they seem to be more than half her head's size, which just seems heavy. Another argument to make them a bit smaller would be - her being a princess, usually they're young, so breasts might not have grown fully

    I'll try rotating the neck.  The problem with rotating the head is that it makes her eyes suddenly seem angry at this resolution (although the illusion disappears when she is magnified).  I definitely hear you on the balance front, and I'll try to reposition the whole thing.
    Truthfully, I drew her with smaller breasts originally but I thought she looked too boyish.  Perhaps there's a happy medium.

There may be other issues as well, but the main thing that really jumps out at me is the arms.  That's... a really odd position for them.  It looks like she's... actually, I don't know what it looks like she's doing.  I really can't think offhand of any reasonable activity that would involve holding the arms like that.

I was going for a whimsical look.  That, and all my characters hold there arms forward and I wanted her to stand out.  I agree it doesn't look right, though.

Her right arm isn't so bad, actually, except that I'm not sure why it's bent at the elbow and she's raising her right hand like that.  But the left arm... it looks like it's twisted awkwardly backward at the shoulder.  Try putting the left arm more parallel to the right arm, instead of bending in the opposite direction.  (Also, I'd have both arms straighter and not bent so much at the elbow, but that's not as big an issue.)

The arms also seem a wee bit small to me... both a little too short, and a little too skinny.  But again, that's a lesser issue.  The awkward bent-back-ness of the left arm is definitely the thing that bothers me the most.

Alright, the arm's gotta go.  I'm not sure I can make it any longer and still follow Anian's advice, but I will see about making it thicker.

Back in a bit with a redraw....

     

Hey Critics,
          I remember posting here about 5 years ago when I was having problems perfecting a princess.  It would seem as if in the intervening years I have learned little about the female body (...er, drawing wise, that is).

          Here's the dame:

         I'm pretty much locked into her face and hair, and she can't really get any taller, but otherwise input is welcome.  She will probably require arms to be a different colour from her body for animation purposes, and the palette has to stay all purples (but not necessarily the same exact hues).  I'm not really all that happy with her posture, pose or garb, so suggestions on all of those would be most appreciated.

I'm just finishing my second team effort, but before that I did everything alone. 
    Communicating with teams definitely sucks up a lot of time that could otherwise be spent at more productive activities -that's by far the biggest draw-back in my experience (although I've never experienced a lamer team-mate that doesn't follow through -that'd be the uber-biggest draw-back).  I'm a bit hampered in that I have a very finite amount of computer time every evening, so I found this more of a nuisance than other people might -answering three or four lengthy PMs/e-mails could easily eat up half my evening work-period.  If you have unlimited computer time you could always do the communication thing during what would otherwise be down-time, so it may not be such an issue.  The main thing is it takes a surprising amount of words back and forth to achieve consensus/understanding between teammates.
     Other problems are unity of vision and unity of purpose, which don't really crop up when everything is happening in one skull.
     The benefit of team work is that, despite the added load of communication, a team can get a lot more done than an individual.  Provided each team-member is more skilled than the others at his/her particular job (art, coding, writing....), then the final product will benefit immensely.  Things definitely get done quicker with many hands, and teams are usually also good for motivation and just plain old camaraderie.  Bad ideas usually get nipped in the bud when submitted to the group, but there may also be a danger of groupthink shooting down good ideas.
     So to say clearly how I stand: I would say the right team, organized properly, would definitely beat working alone, in most scenarios most of the time.

But one more thing, since it has been mentioned quite a lot: The "If both parties agree, how can it be exploitation" argument is just not valid in a globalized economical system. Read "The Grapes of Wrath". There will always be someone to work cheaper...

Following this argument to it's logical conclusion, it is just a matter of contacting enough people before the price of any project drops to exactly $0.01 (because anything less than that would be working for free, not cheaper).  I will agree not to utilize this strategy to create my next game (and thereby unleash an unstoppable wave of community destroying exploitation) if you agree to give capitalism just a bit of credit as a means of determining the value of labour.

I thought both the original post and the response had valid points.  The first guy basically said "This is how not to get screwed by an artist" and the response basically said "this is how artists get screwed".  Obviously the ideal situation is for both parties to have their expectations satisfied by the other, but life's a messy thing so it's unrealistic that this will always be the case.  I guess the lesson here is to be very clear about each party's obligations in a contract from the outset, and also have an exit strategy clearly outlined if things go south. 

Most people on this board seem to think that if both parties agree, how can it be exploitation?  I agree with this stance.   I don't think the sweat shop analogy is very apt, since a sweat shop worker would be geographically and perhaps socially tied to the exploitive employer in a way that makes no sense on the internet.  Granted some young but talented artists probably are doing some work for less than they might bargain for, but the beauty of the open market is that they can hold out for better terms the next time around.

I must say that the folks that come out of this looking like jerks are the shoot-from-the-hip flamers who responded to the original article. 

My queen doesn't even live in my country -talk about a rip-off!  But at least she doesn't meddle -truthfully, aside from on money, I never see her except in the tabloid magazines when I'm trying to pay for my groceries.  A local king would surely make a nuisance of himself, so I guess there are advantages to having a remote and distant sovereign.