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Haha, I've been participating this contest more than 6 years before it was announced:

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Maybe it could inspire someone.

Possibly cannot be counted as entries though, I'm afraid. Or can they?

I like this bg very much. But-

* You cannot really drive a car on such narrow street. Comparing door (thus guessing human size) to a lane left for car, everybody rides bicycles. There absolutely no way for a normal car there. And due shops, I guess you have to fit a TRUCK on this road. And park it, for unloading. How?
* Add more stuff to the horizon. distant mountains, trees or tall buildings or whatever
* Everything looks so dirty. In means of color.

I don't know how, but colors seem really random, and ugly. A color correction would help alot. Most out of place colored things are

- dark red/brown building on left - it looks downright ugly
- red wall on right - it's WAY too red
- garage door. Black w/ green lines? what?

I strongly suggest to keep some harmony around there. Then again, google image search for "street" came up with some US cities and yes, ugly streets like this DO exist, in San Francisco... 

* Add stuff. Fire hydrants, trashcans, places to cross road, adverts, power/phone lines, cracks in pavement, birds, cracks-stains-dirt-posters on buildings, streetlights, etc

EDIT: KhrisMUC, you made me all dizzy... how do you come up with stuff like that? And who actually picks random vanishing points/does all the geometry rocket-science for such simple background? I guess experienced artists have better "eye" for it and simply make smaller mistakes, but I don't really believe everyone checks buildings like this...

No, never. I'm too lazy!

* Trees DO work, but look a bit too large and only 2 trees is rather confusing than helping. Try different things, and be clever about it. Little tricks - if they're well made - go long way. Maybe draw a whole little oasis there, with multiple trees (smaller), less saturated and brighter, and so on? When oasis lake is also partially covered, it would work better maybe.

* Yes, I still use ArtGem for 90% of what I do, including this paintover

* Even with landscapes like this, using one or two vanishing points (I'd use two to make pyramids) and go by all the rules you use to make interior backgrounds is a must. So get your perspective right, and middle pyramid too. See photos below too: bright things really ARE bright...

Also, SHADE. Bright sun should leave stronger shadows, and stronger shadows would make this background much better. Also, you could try contrasting out sand color, like all new 3D games do for HDR/daylight effect. I mean, make it really bright and outbalanced.

For easy shadows, simply draw filled black triangles onto new layer over right side of pyramids and ground, go to layer settings (ctrl-L), and set layer opacity to about 5-15%. If you want to save layers, after you're done with shadow layer, merge it (red '+' icon, then click on layer to merge with) with drawing layer.

Good reference picture

Another:

Image like this could be quite tricky to do.

Here's why you failed:

* There's nothing that gives a hint that pyramids are down and you are up. Making cactuses, rocks, anything that's small down there and big on the cliff would give much better impression. Could be extra hard because it's desert and deserts aren't packed with anything else than sand.
* The edge doesn't stand out enough to leave cliff impression
* Cliff doesn't have visible edges that could indicate that this - really is - a cliff.
* The pyramids have still very much side view, which makes things harder. If the were "seen" more from top, the task would have been easier.

Here's what I did:

* Brightened horizon to give impression of something far-far away and in the heat haze/fog
* Also, desaturated and lowered contrast to do previous. I think that's only way to do it if you want to stay in low-res, and not use blur (otherwise, blur would have faked nice depth-of-view effect)
* Darkened border between cliff and lower land, leaving impression of shadow/shade

It worked, kind of


Of course, that's an 5-minute edit (really lazy this time really, see how I messed up fog/haze) and you could do much, much better than this.

* Just pick up the idea and do it correctly
* Add something partial down below. I mean a cactus that's only half visible or rock, nomad tent or something. If it's half-visible, people should understand better that it's actually covered by cliff that is in the foreground.
* Add details up and down. Difference between their sizes also hint greatly about what we're seeing here.
* Don't overdo it like i did.
* This sand would greatly benefit from some noise. But only cliff part.

EDIT: For blur demonstration, it worked a bit better. But blur cannot be used really well with low-res.

AGAin!

Yea, meeting him naked at bathroom door few times, leaving really smelly socks onto his bed/dinner table/etc and washing his stuff with some of yours that give color, should hurry things a bit

Someone who has no money to buy whole of it?
In a global economic crisis, I don't think there would be so few?

Why not sell half of the house to someone else?
EDIT: You might think it's difficult to find a buyer, but if he delays and shows no motivation to buy it, maybe finding another buyer would be quicker?

Money will be money either way!

I don't know much about UK laws in particular, but some things should be same in all EU, I think.

1) Do they both own their half of house ON PAPER?
If so, he has as much right to live there as your gf, because he's rightful owner of an imaginary (don't know if it's the legal term, English?) portion of real estate. Which still counts as being owner.

2) Was the "will buy other half later" thing ON PAPER when they bought the house? If so, was there a deadline?


Otherwise, I don't see really what should FORCE him to buy other half. It's like living in a flat - you and all other tenants own an apartment in a building - therefore a portion of the whole building, but it's quite stupid for neighbor to say that you must buy his apartment, and other apartments too after some time.

Words, especially if there's no-one to prove those, do not cost air they consumed... in modern world.

3) Atleast where I live, owning a portion of property gives you legal advantage - first-buy-right if other owner(s) decides to sell his/their portions. I mean, if your unwanted neighbor decides to sell his portion, he has to ask your gf if she wants to buy it and if so - sell to her, if not, he can sell it to whoever.

Maybe UK laws are different, but it still might help you somehow.

Maybe that's that is game making forum.

I prefer to make my own levels, by myself, and for my own game or mod.
And seriously, for a real dev team, "just make it and we'll use it" is a bit too real.

I mean, when Rockstar, EA or whoever else too damn real hosts a competition, there IS a reward of some sort.  Especially BIG and REAL dev teams.
A free copy of game, name in thanks-to list or just something.

I don't think that many people would come and draw a level just for imaginary extra millimeter to e-penis. "I drew a sketch for one level for some indie game" won't make your CV shine so brightly neither.

Then again, getting hands on level editor and making your very own map - which - if successful - will also be featured in full game, now that would be FAR more fun.

'very hot topic'?
Why 

On side note, Wintermute games - atleast on link provided - look a bit prettier, I'd say.
Expect another "bye ags" thread  or not!

...no word on award? Payment? Credits? Praise? Cookies?

We’ll pick our favourite level design, create it in 3d and throw it into the game for everyone to play in the final release! Just like that.

Sounds like random n00bish AGS upstart making a thread "I have an idea, a game about robots and lasers and zombies and elves. Please make my game. Then I will sell it and be rich!1! kthxbye"

That DID help, thank you! 

Well, I don't really know what to do with outlines. I don't like them, but in places, they seem inevitable. Also, no-outlined characters tend to blend into backgrounds often or simply non-outlined details are hard to see from rest. I think I'll go semi-outlined way, trying to use them as little as possible, yet where needed.

About arms:
Sometimes, when I try changing something, I keep bumping on same path thus not getting it right, whatever I try.

I wasn't satisfied about hands being somewhat different in front and diagonal views.
Idea of "ungluing" arms was a fresh breeze here, because I would never come to so simple way myself. All further edits on this would probably have been painful efforts to keep hands "glued" but make them look better. You somehow approached problem from fresh point of view and easily fixed this. It's difficult to describe, but sometimes a designer needs awakening like this... I've noticed this often.

Also, arms make look him much more macho now. I'm not sure about changing shoulders though, he's not THAT tough guy
I will try, though.

Color correction was right on spot too, as such minor change seems to make a great difference, looking at it. It turned t-shirt shading on front view something I intended it to be: realistic!
Thanks again!

"Realistic" is a word I'd rather use carefully here, because setting goals too high (such as going extremely realistic in something) have previously meant many abandoned projects for me. So my priorities here are

1) easy to animate
2) Good-looking (colorful, detailed, well-shaded), as much as possible until it interferes with (1)
3) something I can do. I mean, someone could come and make really great edit here, but if it takes heavy effort to follow from me - meaning this is over my head - then I cannot easily animate or produce this. Such as ProgZmax's edit: It's looking helluva good, but his way is much more minimal and therefore requires much more skill - to get more out of less colors/etc.

Maybe I can reproduce 1 or 2 characters - going someone else's style - in reasonable time, but going further, it becomes too complicated to actually get something done. Also, going totally new way means heavy learning, and learning means that by time I finish character number 5, it looks like night and day compared to characters 1 and 2, so I go back to use my improved skills to REDO earlier characters, etc. So I figured to get essential problems out and maximize good looking-ness on what I can do easily and quickly myself. That's also one reason I tried to avoid complete redraws.

...Even though I said "no game", you cannot possibly believe that I'm simply killing time with fixing same dude again and again?

2x


Point taken... and (hopefully) fixed. It's kind of difficult to make the arms...

But keep brownie points (and other, witty yet unhelpful and pointless remarks) for General Discussion please.

Doublepost!

I'm getting old, because this took WAY more effort than I initially thought.
I tried to follow all ProgZmax's advice, but still ended pretty much going my own way... 


2x


Any better?

[LONG]

I think that few games (not adventures) have got it right. Manhunt, for example. Score lets you unlock concept art, initial level designs, etc. Why not? Of course, in Manhunt it was a bit different, and depended also on how you played.

In an adventure game, it could work if score is not awarded for every move, but for finding special things, which presumes deep exploration from player's part.

I'd like a system like this. If game is so good you want to see how it was made, all the sketches, developer commentary, etc, you WILL be motivated to look for hidden score. There could be in-game instant rewards too, like jokes and funny situations or whatever. Take Monkey Island 2 for example. After having that LONG "philosophical" discussion about tree color with hermit on Dinky Island, wouldn't it be cool to have a background sketch unlocked as reward? And maybe something cool or funny would also happen after the dialogue?

But classical scoring system leaves me unimpressed. Many times, you do not get full score at the end, which kind of takes away of joy finishing the game. What for?

On this particular site, it's not so interesting, but following links took me there...

http://www.419eater.com/index.htm

Now this is hardcore!
http://www.419eater.com/html/letters.htm

Take a look at first few and you'll get what I mean. Baiter's comments here and there make it even funnier.

Despite being funny, it's quite sad and irritating stuff overall, I'd say.

I have no clearer vision of him than pixelcat's original closeup, really.
To me, he seems caucasian, probably european.

I wanted a bit older, more experienced and more powerful figure than it was in original game, so I'm trying to put this into character. Something like Max Payne (2) probably, maybe not so gunz-blazing I-want-to-die, but close.

Actually, only one who could knew specifics about the character would be his original creator, Velislav

I will edit him tonight after work and see where I land with this character.

How I see my life:

I humbly provide continuous amusement to higher forces and people around me by swallowing every bucket of crap life can throw at me. With an optimistic, masochistic smile I greet the tide turning things even worse than they were day before. I wake up every day, straighten my back and walk towards next obvious trap with pure intention of making me miserable.

Even if life doesn't have a trap for me for some day, it makes it up with me realizing that I suffer alone, I will never find a brave and caring soul to accompany me in this sick game, nor be really accepted among others like me. But that's okay, because -

- my ambition is to top this game by reaching point where things could not get any worse. I have a long way to go through, and the life has final ace still in it's sleeve - death. But it seems that the game is too good to end it so abruptly, which means that...
...the game is still on.

I suffer, therefore I have a reason to exist.