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[ThreeOhFour]

You whitewashed her!

Here's a revision with accents on her jacket, deeper shadows, and more facial definition to get some more contrast. I've also made the pupils a shade darker, thanks for the suggestion ThreeOhFour and Mandle.



I may revisit the model later but I've got about twenty other characters to redraw now.

Thank you all for your help and advice! Here's all the iterations side-by-side so you can see how far she's come in the past year!

It might just be me but in that last shot does it look like she has no eyeballs?

Yeah, the "Edit" has a lot of changes that probably get lost with the background. Here it is for comparison.



I prefer the subtler eyes so I can save the whites for bigger expressions, especially as I won't be using portraits with these new character models.

Ahh, I couldn't wait to work on this. I've considered everything you guys said and come up with this:



Definitely going to tweak the hair and the expression a bit so she doesn't look so morose but I'm loving this silhouette over the last two. Bailey looks like she's ready to kick some ass!

I also got my center pixel back. Thoughts?

Edit:

There we go...

Thanks so much for all the feedback! Really relieved to see some people opting for the older style.

I'm going to take a few days to digest it all and make some adjustments.

Hey all! I've been spending a lot of time thinking about the way I've been approaching the sprites in one of my games and wanted your thoughts on these two versions, and to share some of my process!

Here's how things looked when I last worked on the game:



The big head Lucasarts style wasn't working with the tone of the game, especially when trying to deal with death or tension in the story. Here is the revised concept art for Bailey, the lead character:



Here's part of the cast in both styles:




A lot of facial detail is lost but if I go with this style I'll be able to use portraits if need be. I also find these proportions allow for more natural animations, especially in scenes that involve climbing or running.

Let me know what you think, still lots of time for tweaking before I start the next build!

[Hide & Seek (loop)]

Been MIA for a while and wanted to share some progress so here is some new music to frolic to!

Hide & Seek (loop)

If anyone's curious about the instrumentation, I'm trying to find a balance between acoustic and electronic instrumentation to reflect the pixelart. It's a bit cheesy at times but I'm hoping that the game being short might help ease you into embracing it over the course of a playthrough...

No way I can finish in any decent time frame but I'm definitely going to complete the game when I've got some more time. Building a game around having three inventories, four stores, and a game-wide subplot involving this guy kind of got out of hand...

One day I will grasp the concept of MAGS.

Unfortunately I need to pull out of this one, work got crazy and I haven't been able to touch Prepared since the 15th, and in it's current state would be much more disaster than any of you could handle.

Good luck finishing your games!

I've fallen deep into the rabbit hole and spent my entire weekend creating some kind of calculator simulator.



The game now calculates how much the weight of items in your car affects fuel economy, total calories and "hydration" currently in your main inventory and stockpile, and store shelves deplete their stock over time. It still needs some refinement but it's starting to feel like an actual game now! Next I need to allow the player to drop items off at home, and script the other three stores. Oh... and Gary could probably use some arms...

Here is the "Survivalist Log" that updates with side-quests, and tally's:

Ahhh Miez, that looks awesome!

I've been hacking away at this from all angles and got the time, money, and fuel scripts working properly, as well as a working service station (still a work in progress):



Right now the game is looking to be extremely short and I haven't figure out if I want to make it longer and more complex, or give the player more reason to replay it for a higher score. It's reminding me a lot of the bargain bin games I used to get for my Amiga like The Three Stooges or Detroit.

Also, be on the lookout for a younger version of a certain nurse...

That is not at all what I expected. I can't help but imagine this as a perfect candidate for an infinity zoom.

Spent my entire weekend working out game mechanics and thinking up features I definitely won't have time for! Here's a mock-up of the UI and game map:



I'm hoping to have all of the background sketches done by the end of the week so I can put all of my time into scripting. It's going to be a primarily text based management sim, with you balancing your money, gas, time, and inventory. Thankfully the source material is appropriately insane.

Alright, here we go!

In 'Prepared' you play a suburban survivalist father living in a middle American suburb in the 1960's. You've just finished a Do-It-Yourself fallout shelter in your backyard when a disaster warning comes on the radio. It's finally your time to shine! Spend the last few hours before the disaster strikes gathering supplies and, if time permits, your family.



I'm aiming for 'A Serious Man' meets 'Falling Down'.

Another great theme! Going to see if I can come up with anything worthwhile over the weekend and hopefully take part this month.

Nicole's home got a drafty update!



Progress is slow and steady, with a lot of time going into implementing new puzzles and locations. The dialogue trees are finally starting to take shape and the effect your choices have on the game world, while subtle, are starting to feel worthwhile!

Congrats Matt! Glad I could be a part of this great month of work!

Myinah and Scavenger.

I had a great time playing this, going in cold, and just letting things happen. I had a bit of an issue with needing to be next to things without any keyboard controls, but the atmosphere made up for it! Congrats!

Spoiler

On my first playthrough, when I went back into the main room and everything had changed I got way too excited for my own good...

[close]

Thanks for the kind words. I keep peeking in the Hint thread and taking notes. I'm hoping the added line work and detail to the backgrounds makes the hotspots a bit more obvious, and the text easier on the eyes.

@Rocchinator: I've been reading articles written by AGS members to get a feel for making pixel art to scale (as opposed to resizing larger digital or scanned images) that really helped. Every single one says the same thing about figuring out your light sources first and having that drilled into my brain has helped immensely.

The Journeys Down and Inside Backdrop Art from @theo, and How we make our graphics from @abstauber.

Small update with a new main area, and final character art!



Things are steady and slow as I'm still mapping out the dialogue trees before I start implementing them.