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The blue in the sky is a complete mess i agree, that was only there cuz i felt it needed a gradient, wich failed anyway. The turquoise(i think thats right) on the waves is also a little out of place so i will change that too. The white around the cave enterance im quite fond of, it was meant to give the effect of light reflecting of the damp rock around the enterance where there was most light. I quite like it, and without it the rocks look stupid as they need something to separate them from the ocean.

But over all im quite pleased with it, ill get those few thing fixed up and update it, it was only practice after all, thanks for your help and suggestions

Thanks - Rich

Ball less mouse is to use like a normal mouse but it can be used on the drawing tablet, saves having to clean it wen it gets mankey.

My grandad got one of these tablets randomly an his came with art dabbler. Its an alright program as far as i can tell, it confuses the hell outa me and doesnt have all that many tools. Corel is a pretty good company for it though, we have some great programs at school for it but they cost a bomb. Just practice loadsdrawing lines, squares and circles is pretty hard but it makes everything else a lot easier once you get used 2 it.

Good luck with it - Rich

Well ive just been playing around with the typical 16 color EGA palet to see what sort of things were possible ect. All this is possibly in preparation for this months MAGS.

So here it is, some of the dithering is a bit dodgey. (if i hear 1 comment about how the choice of colors is bad i will flip... ive been muttering this to myself all the time ive been doing this)



Really just looking at suggestions and ideas and any other crits.

Ive come to the conclusion that this isnt really the best style to go for as drawing pixel by pixel for dithering is quite time consuming.

Thanks - Rich

Is it a hard and fast rule as to what they have to be? Do they have to be the traditional 16 color palet? Or can they be 16 shades of blue? (or something of the like) i was just wondering. Im undecided as to wether to enter, as im getting a new computor but id still like to look into the possibility. EGA games do have a certain quirkyness. However without any rules on plot i may struggle to come up with one. That is IF i enter.

Just because there are no lights in the picture doesnt mean there isnt a lightsource, it just hapens to be out of the picture. Im just doing a quick paintover to demonstrate, gimme a few mins or so...



edit: there we go, the lightsource is coming from the top right, its about mid afternoon so the shadows are about medium length . Its only very basic shading but it gives you an idea of where the lightsource is and stuff, with a little longer you could probably do a lot better.

Good luck and keep it up... practice practice practice. Now i must be gatting back to practicing EGA bacgrounds incase i enter this months MAGS - Rich

I would enter... but high resolutions scare me.

I think ill just experiment with 16 colors and think about it. But i think 640x400 is just way too big to be using 16 colors at...

Just to point out im british but am using the american speling because google says thats not how you spell it... google smells

  that was just a demonstration, if you wanted to keep your walk to feature, that could replace the main menu one. When i created this i was aiming to emulate the GUI used Albion (actually an RPG but the same feature could quite functionaly be applied to an adventure game).
  Mine isnt as functional as it could be, and is missing a few features. For instance the name of the object selected among otehr things. I was trying to show the resizing ability, it could just add some edge to the GUI, its not necesarry, but for an hours coding why not?

Your GUI looks beautiful by the way.

If you want that code then ill fix it up for you, otherwise i think ill have a look at it myself, and add an inventory feature.

Thanks - Rich

Well... i just spent the last hour doing it... im bored 

Here it is, if your interested i might go to the trouble of tidying up the code (its pretty scruffy and there arent any comments).

Graphics are minimal, i took out any sprites i wasnt using to keep file size down and the background is just a 5 min holding bg i use for everything. Its the gui im demonstrating here. This is probably better for the tech forums tho.

anyway, heres the link www.rjtwilton.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/guidemo.zip

Hope it works - Rich

not reallly, i was only talking about taking out stuff like talk to plant ect. Not making it impossibly easy, just more streamlined and flashy.

I made a GUI like this a while ago, but i think i deleted it.
I managed to get it to turn off buttons where actions were unavailable and shorten the GUI to fit only the buttons on it. I seem to recall there being a lot of code involved.

But its possible so maybe thats something to look into.

Well ive had another look at them and decided to leave Barney the security guard until ive drawn the room. I have done some work on stu though. Ive upped the contrast and reduced the colors to 9. I think ive fixed the arms, they certainly look a little better now. I also slightly tweeked the legs.

I did try doin the face the same as bigbrothers but i couldnt get it to quite work so i left it like it was but with fewer colors. I also tried making him taller, but again it didnt quite feel right, and hes meant to be short and the other sprites will only be a few pixel bigger than he is.



Thanks for all your help - Rich

Thats an amazing edit!!

  Definetly taken your coment on contrast into consideration, i just opened up the pic and changed the contrast and it looked better already! Im not quite so worried about the number of colours, but i can probably reduce them anyway. Ill have another go at them in a while, but this has really helped.

They look great! Thanks - Rich

The dude with the green spaceship is Stu the coffee guy(and our hero.. im working on a storyline). Im happy with him as he is, hes meant to be short and fat. Im quite happy with that sprite.

The other guy is the security guard(hence the looking like a security guard) And hes the one im having trouble with. Its his arms and legs just not looking right, im also unsure of perspective so he will probably need correcting again after the scene is drawn.

Thanks - Rich

Just wanted to get a few crits on these characters as well as some help in fixing the one of them.


Barney the security guard and Stu the coffee guy(possibly lead character for a game)
Barney is the one im having problems with, i just cant get his lower leg an arm to look quite natural. I've been nudging pixels about for 1/2 an hour and he just refuses to look natural. So some crits on that would be helpful, anatomy isnt my strong point.
I was going for quite simplistic shading(mostly two tone), but any crits on that (and whatever else) welcome

Thanks - Rich

Nope, its 4 pixels higher and 320 pixels wider... that is if your working with the 320x200 resolution.

Zor is right, origionality and fuctionality are always nice in a GUI, sure its functional... but its seen in most games. Your game will stand out that much more if it has an origional GUI. It doesnt evene have to be origional, just a diferent style. For instance Lucas Arts style, or broken sword ect.

You don't have to, but it would stand out more - Rich

  Thats a lovely sprite, reminds me of some guy from a film i watched last night... the aussie guy from proof of life. I also love the hair, infact i think the only part of the moddel there is a problem with is the gun.
  Like the others said the stock is too short and the reciever is far too long. Also you've tried to show the clip release button on your pic(the tiny lump that sticks down infront of the trigger guard, bellow the bigger lump that sticks down infront of the trigger guard... least thats what i think it is) This is really too small to show in the sprite and makes it look like there is a random growth infront of the trigger guard.
  Also if you look at the way he is standing with the gun it is very awkward, its a little unnatural. This is mostly because the reciever is too long so the hands are very far appart, but it would look more natural to have him holding the gun pointing down a little.
  I also am not so keen on the ciggaret, but thats no biggie.
  And last but not least remember gun safety... when holding a gun to have your photo taken all ways remember the finger off rule...

Wow... that was longer than i thought it would be...

Hope it helps - Rich

I agree with intermalte  about the cold look, i really like it, a cool style.
Looking at the shadows I would say that there should be a tallish lamp behind the sofa to the left of the door, that would give those sorts of shadows and not look to out of place (im not too sure, it would give shadows like that but they might need adjusting)
Try it and see, but the empty look is good, dont overcrowd it, and keep it comtemporary (sp?)

Like it - Rich

On how absolutely boring as hell Potter's name is! Robert... HA!
Only joking, if you want a really boring name try Richard... I hate it.
As for surnames how about:
Jones (It would have to be a welsh character.. they're all called jones)
Wilson
Davis
Branston(look at Richard Branston... really boring name...)

Now im going to stop because all im coming up with is names of my friends from infant school...

Where can we find this database, could really come in handy.

Thanks - Rich

One heluva game... i love it, spent the last two hours playing it... atmosphere is amazing... my phone went off and i leapt outa my seat (but i guess I'm a jumpy guy).

I havent finished yet (infact I'm stuck for the first time, ive always seemed to know exactly what to do up till now) the puzzles arent easy, but the answers are logical.
This is the first one of this series ive played, and I'm loving it, definetly going to go back and play the others. youve done some amazing stuff in this one, absolutely inspiring.

Keep up the GREAT work - Rich

edit: that was awsome, great game, just finished (it would appear the answer was staring me in the face) i got 106 points, wonder where i missed a point? Ill be sure to try the other games. This is truely one of the gems to come out of this community!

It was one heluva sweater. That bit cracked me up where he takes his coat off to change into the radiation suit. It makes the bit about him not wanting to give away his coat make sense. Backgrounds in that were very detailed, like in most comercial games, probably why not many people managed to field entries.

ive decided to show mine so far, in the vain hope people will vote for it...


I will continue with this piece and will probably post it in the critics lounge in a week or so.

-Rich